When God Opens Doors...

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When Things Fits Like a Jigsaw Puzzle
Having come back from backsliding after 15 years, settled down in my church, called to my current job, called to minister to reach out to my friend from a cult, called to cell ministry and gone through tough times but yet able to heard from God and see Him at work in my ministry, I have come to really believe that things are indeed in God's hands; in God's timing and according to His perfect will, things will come to be. And this little blog (or maybe not very little) bears witness to how real God is and how I continue to experience His presence in my life. I am no perfect disciple YET; I am still continuing to grow in Him as He leads me. I have my fair share of struggles with sin and also fair share of problems because whoever says being a Christian is going to promise you an easy life. But one thing is for sure; that there is a sense of peace and purpose once you know you are not doing life alone but with God. You can call it psychological or anything but then the fact is that over the past 2 years plus, things happened that is beyond coincidences.

And recently, I have again come to be amazed at how God works and how He opens doors to share about His love and what the Christian faith is REALLY about, to a few people I would never have thought of sharing or who I do not have the courage to share. Things just slowly fell into place.

"Share my love with your friends"
Just these couple of weeks alone, it became very clear how God had been bringing people to me to work in spiritual partnership to minister. For example, more than a week ago, God has given me the opportunity to sit down with an old friend, to talk about God's purpose for each and everyone of us, sharing with him my personal experience how God has used my past hurts and pains, to allow me to better understand the pains and hurts of people going through similar struggles and minister to them. And again, without fail, the right words just came and the opportunity just opened to talk openly about the matter, even though this friend of mine is from a different faith group. At the end, I was even able to say a little prayer for this friend of mine. It was the intention to catch up with this friend of mine and also invite this friend for Easter but throughout the conversation, I was reminded by God that I am to share God's love for others UNCONDITIONALLY and not just with the agenda of "converting" someone to the Christian faith; that would be something between the person and God. Increasingly, I have come to learn that Christianity is not a religion or about rituals but about relationship with God. In a nutshell, I have come to realise how people needed to recognise that:

• God's Love - God loves His children and had meant good for everyone; man is made in His image
• Man's Choice - Man is given choice but fell away from the fellowship with God when taunted by the devil and chose to sin
• The Holy God - Being a holy God, God could not accept sin but from the very beginning, set forth a redemption plan to bring people back to Him
• The Bible - The bible, which is not only a book of disjointed stories, but a way in which God communicates with us (i.e. the word of God), it is HIS-story
  
• (i) God's Character - on who God is,
  
• (ii) God's Fatherly Love - on how He continue to appoint and send kings, prophets and priests to bring people back to Him throughout time, choosing to forgive again and again
  
• (iii) Lesson 101 - providing reference points on how to live life so people can continue to draw near to God as they learn from from "mentors", their lessons and reflections (some call the bible "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth" :D),
  
• (iv) God's Redemption Plan & Remedial Lesson - documenting how the redemption plan eventually, and consistently rather than in contradiction to the Old Testament, led to the coming of Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins and further make a point on what it means to live a Christ-like life that allows one to draw near to God,
  
• (v) God's Direct Line with Us - a "conduit" which God speaks to us when we seek Him and
  
• (vi) God's Kingdom Building Manual - a book of instructions on how we can do our part in helping to draw people to the kingdom of God and establishing the kingdom of God in place of Satan's "kingdom"
  
• (vi) God's Assurance and Comfort - providing hope of salvation and hope in times of trials with its power to minister through its word even in the darkest of moments.
• On Relationship with God - The Christian faith's focus is on coming back into relationship with God, it is not about religion or rituals because God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7b "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."); it is about coming to repentance and deciding to come back into reconciliation with God so restoration can take place.

So, I am reminded that there is no point in forcing someone into the Christian faith when they do not understand this fundamental truth of the faith and have not decided to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord. Someone has put it ever so nicely: You, just as God has called Abraham, are to be a blessing to the nations and when I mention this, it is not just a matter of blessing with money but giving to others the greatest gift God has given to you: love:

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 4:19 - We love because he first loved us.

"Your friend's name shall be in the book of life"
Then, a few days later, on Easter Sunday, I invited a friend to join me for Easter outreach but then I was rejected. Well, to a certain extent, I am no longer as uptight about rejections as before. Sure it did not feel good but then I have come to trust that God will draw people close to Him in His timing, just as how He has drawn me back to Him after backsliding for 15 years. And that very evening, my friend suddenly asked me out for dinner and I agreed. I then began to see how things were slowly falling into place to allow me to share with him on the Christian faith. Just before I left my home to meet him, I received a sms from him and I realised how he seems to have no peace in life, always easily angered by the slightest thing. At that very point in time, I felt something in my heart that told me that I needed to "talk" to him about his life, being concerned as a friend. But then I remembered saying to myself "save it, he will most probably reject any talk about the Christian faith, just like in the past". Anyway, he has had several negative encounters with Christians in the past, which made him feel that Christians are pushy people who wants people to be converted to their faith, or even feeling that we are exclusive people who only marry fellow Christians. So, I dismissed the thought of sharing.

But then, when we arrived at our dinner destination, it was relatively crowded but we were ushered to a conducive corner of the restaurant which was relatively quieter than other parts. At this point in time, I was thinking inside me "God, are you providing the opportunity to share with him about You? Are you telling me to talk to him about the Christian faith? Today?". Then, halfway through the dinner, the opportunity suddenly opened as he recounted about his visit to his friend's church earlier in the morning. It did take me by surprise because he seldom talk about religion matters and here we are talking about the Christian faith. It gave me the chance to share with him how the Christian faith, contrary to what others think, is not about conversion but about transformation and how it is more about relationship with God more than anything else.

Then, another piece of the puzzle fell into place; it seems that yet another thing had happened again to pave the way for him to perhaps come back to the Lord. Earlier that afternoon, one of my cell members suddenly suggested going for badminton the following Sunday. I wasn't very keen on the idea given my back problem but then decided "why not?" since it would be a good fellowship opportunity for the cell. So I told him to go ahead to plan the game. So again, opportunity came and I was prompted to invite him for the badminton game, even in my heart I was prepared for a "oh, another Christian gathering ah, erm no thanks" answer. But to my surprise, my friend actually agreed to come along for the game the following Sunday, even though he knows it is a cell gathering. He still of course has his worries whether we will "push" the Christian faith to him but then I again affirmed to him that it is about the heart for God and he needs to want it or else it is useless even if we push him to accept it.

Then, on Thursday, I went for a Christian Education seminar at another church and as I was walking into the hall, I received a sms from my friend but since the seminar was going to start, I decided that I will respond to his sms later. But halfway through the seminar, a bible verse stood out and to my surprise, my friend's name was mentioned it said that the name is found in the book of life. It was surprising because I had never known that this name was ever in my bible and at this point in time, another sister-in-christ, who also knows this friend of mine, pointed the verse out to me and shared she was also surprised to see the name in the bible. Is God telling me that it may soon be time that this person will be accepting Christ? Either way, I decided that be it whether this person accepts Christ through me or it is just that I plant a seed, I will still do my part as God prompts. That evening, I responded to his SMS and we exchanged a few SMSes. Then something prompted me to ask him again to join us for the BBQ (he did not seem very keen the last time I asked him) and he actually agreed to come to my cell's BBQ and badminton event.

On the day of BBQ, I had messaged my friend the location of the BBQ and had hoped he will be able to join us. However, later that day, a SMS came from another mutual friend asking me and my friend (who I invited to BBQ) whether we would like to meet for dinner that night. Deep inside me, I knew that my friend may just choose to go to the dinner and give this BBQ a miss given that he knows no one and this is a "Christian event". But, to my surprise, he actually went to the dinner with our mutual friend and later rushed down to our BBQ. Again, I was amazed how things just happened.

Then, just a couple of hours before the BBQ, it started to pour very heavily at my workplace and deep inside me, I was praying very hard that the rain will stop because I do know quite a number of visitors will be visiting my cell for the BBQ. It was just getting more and more worrying as the time drew near but then the rain did not stop. I was worried that the event and fellowship would not go on and also the rain might just make it inconvenient for our guests to come to the BBQ. But as I made my way to the BBQ, I prayed "God, it is in your will and if this is your will that the BBQ be a time of outreach and fellowship, let it be done." Thank God that by the time I reached Pasir Ris, I realised it did not even rain. Thank God!

Of course I do hope my friends will come to know the Lord but then most importantly, having experienced God in my life, I just hope to see this friend's life transform and there be more peace in his life as he knows Christ.

"Share your testimony"
Then, at the BBQ, God gave me yet another opportunity to share my testimony with someone I just got to know. A visitor to my cell brought her friend along and somehow, as we were talking, I spoke briefly about how God has called me back and brought me to my current job. But little did I know that he had wanted to know more and before I knew it, I was sharing my testimony. Though a brief sharing, I was glad that God used me to share my testimony to encourage this visitor and at the same time, remind myself on how real He is and how He has been working in my life.

"Continue to reach out to your friend in the cult"
Then, on Friday, I do not know why but then my friend in the cult came back into my mind. It has been sometime since I last saw him. Earlier this year, I saw a newspaper article on the arrest of his leader in China and has sent a copy of the article to him through email and also some bible verses reminding us to be aware of "false teachers and prophets" but there was no response. Recently, I smsed him to invite him to our church Easter event but he rejected me, saying that he will be engaged in his church activities. It seems that God is continuing to put in my heart people who are misled by false prophets and teachers etc including this one:









This just go to show how there are really false teachers and prophets in the world and how many are falling prey to them. And my heart just feel so uncomfortable each time I am reminded there are people out there who are misled. There are many things I have found out about cults:

• They all point to man rather than God.
• Their teachings are inconsistent to the teachings of the bible, often misinterpreting bible verses out of context to support their personal agenda.
• Even when Christ, as the messiah had been accused of things, he had not been found guilty of any crime except to the fact that he proclaimed he is God, which made the Pharisees mad (see Luke 23:4, Mark 15:14, Matthew 27:23) but leaders of cult which said that they are the messiah would usually have strings of accusations on them.
  

Then on Saturday, I was doing my devotion and then I came across a bible verse which stood out to me about how Christ's second coming will be clear to all and not limited to a specific location.

Matthew 24:26-27 - 26. "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. I really do hope that this helps my friend to one day come back to the Lord and not be misled by his cult.

"Help this friend with his questions about me"
Then yesterday, I was again caught by surprise when God opened yet another door for me to share about Him. I was just meeting up with a friend and we soon decided to sit down at a cafe for a chat. Before I knew it, this friend, who is a Buddhist, started asking me whether we practice the washing of each other's feet just as Jesus had did for his disciples during the last supper as an act of cleansing and servant leadership. Apparently, he had recently witnessed this practice in his school, which is a catholic school and wanted to find out whether Christians do that. So, even though I had, in the past, wanted to reach out to this friend, I haven't have the courage to share with this friend and here came an opportunity to share about the faith. Again, I shared about the Christian faith, about how God is seeking reconciliation of relationship with man and how the faith is ultimately a relationship with God more than anything else. The conversation continued and he soon shared about an ugly conversation he had with a mutual friend, back during uni days, when he tried to "denounce" his religion as useless and try to introduce Christianity.

But yet, on that day, God opened up an opportunity for him to ask questions about the Christian faith, on whether we believe in gods and I was even able to share with him my testimonies on how real God is in my life. Thank God for the opportunity to plant a seed even when I had not initially intended to do so during that meeting. But it seems that God do sometimes prompts individuals to share when the timing is right and we need to be sensitive to it when the time comes and willing to heed the prompting.

OK, some grouses:

• Getting Questioned about my Job - A few days ago, my boss called me in the morning but I was not in office yet. Then, later she called me and mentioned that she would like to speak to me about something important when she is back from meeting in the afternoon. It sounded serious and at first, I was afraid she was going to confront me about my punctuality issue. But later, I learnt that someone has raised some question about my budget and most importantly, questioned whether I have "derailed" from my JD, focusing on training rather than on volunteer management. Wow, that really made me feel horrible about it because to me, it was clear that my job is still volunteer management although quite a portion of the budget went to training course for my fellow volunteer coordinators so as to help equip them with the necessary skills to do their work and thereby bringing the level of volunteer management practice in my organisation higher. But being questioned about my JD made me feel so lousy. And the irony is that is that I attended my association's council meeting later that day and they asked if I would like to consider to go for an accreditation training to be accredited as a trainer. Boy, talking about timing.
  
• Getting Fatter - Have suspended my gym membership and doctor did say that I have to refrain from gym activities for the next 6 months or so. But then, am feeling real fat and I have indeed grown in size. Some friends have affirmed that observation and it does not help that there just seem to be input and no output; me eating more to deal with my pain. Something needs to be done. My colleague has suggested that I try swimming but then I do have a phobia of swimming because I almost drowned once. But anyway, went to buy my swimming shorts and all ready for my swimming lessons :D
• Getting all Disappointed - Although the cell BBQ went well and people came, I do feel rather bad when I later realised that I have seemed to leave the whole planning of the BBQ to KM. On the day itself, I arrived at 8pm itself and did not even help to start the fire. Then, later felt very bad that one of my cell member's mother came and felt out of place; I felt bad that I seem to have not prepared people that there will be visitors to the BBQ and so to help to talk to them and make them feel comfortable. It was a bit disappointing to see auntie sitting there alone while everyone was engaged in their own conversations in their groups. Then, I also felt bad that there seem to be role reversal and all the ladies, including KM, were BBQ-ing the food while the guys were standing talking. Maybe things would have been better should I have ensured that some brothers helped with the food while the KM and the rest of the ladies could have helped to make people feel comfortable.
  
• Getting Jealous - I remember saying that I am taking things slowly with KM and do not want to have any high hopes on the relationship. I have to agree that sometimes I do find KM doing far too much in cell that it somewhat makes me feel ashamed that, as a leader, I wasn't doing some of these things or have missed it. I guess this maybe also one of the reason why I am taking a step back and not wanting to explore the relationship further, in addition to all the conflicting messages I got from her which made me real tired. But then, there is conflicting feelings because I sometimes do feel joy when talking about her with friends and today, when I saw her talking, playing badminton and having fun with other male friends, I cannot deny I feel a little jealous. So what's this? Really confusing.
• Getting Heart-Wrenched - Met one of my ex-clients in town again, standing in the midst of the human crowd, selling things from her home and everytime I see her, my heart wrenches.
  

Anyway, here is my "dosage" of thanksgiving:

• I thank God for restoring the relationship with KM again. Things had been a little awkward just before she left for Hong Kong but the 3 weeks apart from one another seems to help because the first time I met her after the 3 weeks away, we were talking normally again. Frankly, I am not having much hopes and will, by default, just be friends and leave it in the hands of God.
• I thank God for blessing the two cell events that just passed - the BBQ and badminton. Thank God for good weather and also for blessing the cell with 2 badminton courts today. We had only been able to book one badminton court for 2 hours but then we had like some 10 people going for the game. But God provided and it seems that whoever booked the other court did not turn up at all and hence we had 2 courts for everyone.
• I thank God once again for helping me to achieve things and how within 2 days, I was able to again programme a whole membership database management system using Microsoft Access, despite having very little knowledge of it. This is the second time I am able to develop a rather sophisticated database system within the span of a couple of days.
• I thank God that my leg pain issue, caused by my slipdisc, seems to be getting OK. More than a week ago, I had gone to see the doctor about my MRI results and true enough, I have slipdisc. But thank God, the pain seems to be subsiding and the doctor did say that since the pain is subsiding, I may not need surgery. Phew! The doctor later made me do some stretching and kept saying "very good very good". Well, hopefully I am on the road to recovery though my physiotherapist did say that my back still seem to be rather "tight" and taught me some exercises to strengthen my back muscles. Really hope to get better soon. But now that my back seem to be getting better, I realised that my old "carpal tunnel" injury on my left hand seems to be coming back, aiyoh!
• I thank God that I was beginning to be busy, real busy again at work. I was becoming somewhat guilty at work because work was slowing down and I frequently find myself doing very little and having very little motivation at work. It did not help that some changes in my work is coming up and I am still late for work everyday. But thank God that work is picking up and for ideas after ideas which continue to come to excite me.
• I thank God for speaking to me through the City Harvest drama production on Good Friday. I visited their church on Good Friday in between the time after helping out in my church and cell group. I must admit that the standard of their drama was really good and as they re-enacted the scene of crucifixion, I found myself not being able to bear to witness the scene. Later the preacher preached about letting go of unforgiveness and I thank God for the timely reminder because earlier that day, I just had a bad episode with someone I have always struggled to forgive. I guess the thought of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins even before we accept Him and how we are sometimes not even able to forgive others as He forgave us, that thought makes it tough to handle. But nonetheless, I thank God for the timely reminder.
• I thank God for salvation during the recent Easter drama production in my church. The drama was really surprisingly meaningful and touching and it seems that Riverlife's drama ministry has grown leaps and bounds the last time I saw them. I have to admit that the drama was really thought-provoking and the actors all acted so well. The drama was so sincerely real in portraying some of life's struggle and when the time came for altar call, it really tugged my heart to see people responding to the call. I always rejoice when I see people making that step to accept Christ in their lives.
  
  
  
  
  Photos from http://whamburger.multiply.com
  
  
• I thank God for helping me to deal with rejections from friends who I invited to the Easter event and now, relative to the past, I am no longer as upset when it comes to friends rejecting me because I believe that everything is in God's hands and timing. I also thank God for helping me to see how I needed to affirm my cell members for their effort in reaching out and for giving me the word, from my bible reading that day, to encourage them because everyone who they invited all rejected the invitations.
• I thank God for helping me to survive my volunteering at the Good Friday children's event in my church. Both me and my sister were supposed to be in-charge of security but boy was it chaotic. But really thank God we managed to survive through it all and everything went well.