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Lord Give me Your Eyes

Monday, 29 June 2009

Radical Christian Life

To be Christian, to follow Christ, is to be radical, to be different from the crowd. So hard, I have not been doing it. But this life is not my own to live, my life is His. Take me and lead me. Here I am.
Fellowship

Had a good time hanging out with brothers and sisters back home in Ajax. It`s been a LONG time since we`ve really gotten together ever since we each went our own ways for universities. Great time. Cool to see how everyone`s changed/grown. Had some great sharing too. Haven't had much real fellowshipping like that since CCF in Waterloo =).

haha we went to the Asian Street Market thingy beside PMall.. Had stinky tofu for the 2nd time in my life. Ive had it b4, but i forgot how it tasted like.. wasnt too bad heh..

Friday, 26 June 2009

Experience God Everyday

From Holy Available: What if Holiness Is about More Than What We Don't Do?
by Gary Thomas --

If we don't think about God, pray to God, listen for God's voice, and consciously serve God, by definition we live an ungodly life. We usually think of "ungodly" as being against God, but ungodly can also be a life that simply ignores God or — out of business, indifference, religiosity, or apathy — simply doesn't tap in to God. In this sense, it is possible to give an ungodly sermon that may be theologically accurate. It is possible to lead ungodly family devotions that nevertheless focus on spiritual truth. Christianity doesn't address only the ends; it has a lively interest in the means. That's why every healthy, growing believer should experience God every day — his presence, his power, his wisdom.

Highlight --> EVERYDAY

Monday, 15 June 2009

Selflessness and Shopping @ Manhattan

This was written on June 14, 2009:
It’s so easy to be selfish. Sometimes we may not even know we are being selfish. It’s just natural to be thinking about yourself all the time and not others. The thing is everything you do, whether small or big, can affect other people. We need to be able to make it a habit to put others needs before our own. When you make a decision, are you thinking about how others would feel about this decision? How does it affect others?

Something that might not seem that big, could hurt someone else’s feelings and you wouldn’t even know. People can be inconsiderate sometimes (not saying that I don’t fall into that trap either =P). Turning to the positive side of things, you can do something small and also make someone else’s day. A small smile can make a difference heh.

Anyways, we went shopping for most of the day today in Manhattan. Had Vietnamese for lunch, then we took the subway to Manhattan. We went from store to store; American Eagle, Urban Outfitter, and other random stores; my brother loves shopping. We ended up at Times Square by the time it was dark. We had dinner at like 10 PM haha. Italian meal. Cept it was slightly different than what I’m normally used to in that it wasn’t one plate/meal for each person. It was more a “family style”, meaning the dishes are HUGE and you share it with everyone.

Really tired after a long day of shopping and a LOT of walking. Took the subway back home, it is now 1:15 AM. Haha. TIRED. Shud sleep early. Driving back to Toronto tmr morning at 7 AM. Gotta wake up at 6 ><. Not much sleep this weekend. I’ll just make it up when I get back home heh. Kewl.

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Wedding

Pretty tiring day today...

Woke up at 7 AM and left to commute to Dim Sum w/ family at 9. Walked back to the hotel from the restaurant at 11. Took around an hour to walk back. We were going to take the bus, but we missed the bus and the next one was a 25 mins wait, so we just decided to walk. Chillaxed a little before changing for the wedding. We had a car service drive us to the church at 2 PM. Wedding started at 3 PM.

Wedding ceremony went smoothly. I don't remember really being in an actual wedding ceremony before, but apparently I have when I was younger. It was a Catholic wedding; the bride's family is Catholic. So there was a few Bible passage readings and stuff like that. The minister gave a little speech about love before the vows/consent stuff. "Love is putting other's needs before your own." It was really short actually, barely more than half an hour.

After that, there was a little photo taking and then the bride/bridemaids, and groom/groomsmen went somewhere else to continue taking pictures. While my parents, my aunts, my brother and I went to have a little snack before the reception/snack; which started at 6 PM.

Back at the hotel now; got back like a little before 12. Pretty tiring day. Will be hanging out in the area tomorrow and going back to Toronto on Monday.

I'm pretty sad I missed the Convocation at Waterloo though ><. I won't be able to see the grads for a long time, and it's sad I didn't get to see them!! Grrr.. >=( And I miss Waterloo! Wanted to hang out w/ all you CCF'ers again! O well... I'll visit some other time, hopefully very soon!

Should go to bed now...signing off

Friday, 12 June 2009

Peacekeepers

Woke up early this morning, 2 AM to be exact to pack up for my trip to New York (yes, I left it to the last few hours to pack haha). We left the garage at 5 AM and it took till 2:20ish PM to get into Brooklyn. We got lost a few times (even with a GPS) but other than that, the trip there was smooth going.

Reason for going to New York was because my uncle (mother's side) was having his wedding this Saturday. Unfortunately the Waterloo Convocation for Engineering Students is also on Saturday. So I will have to miss it =(. O well.. I'll visit Waterloo some other time hopefully.

We went to have dinner with families from both sides. It was good meeting them. We had Mexican; it was okay..meh, a little expensive for my taste..heh. Anyways, had some good talks. Near the end of the dinner, my aunts and uncle had a little argument. Nothing big, but I felt like I wanted to say something to help out. We're called to be peacekeepers, but I know that it's not an easy. I didn't really know what I could have said or what I could have done. Another thing is that I myself don't feel right if I said anything because I know that I can make an argument out of small little things also. I want to be able to know what to say, to be able to see with God's eyes, and to be able to be patient and think things out thoroughly without making an argument out of nothing.

Can we be peacekeepers that others may see that we are God's children through the love we show?

Saturday, 23 May 2009

So Blessed

God is just so good. He has such good things in store for us, such amazing plans for us. We are placed in the perfect places at the right times in our lives, around the right people to grow us, to motivate and encourage us.

...only our own sin hinders us from even more amazing things...

Friday, 22 May 2009

Freedom that is not to be wasted

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6b

Thursday, 21 May 2009

A Full, Meaningful Life Starts Now

We have one life to live, one chance...Every day counts, every second...

We hear that kind of thing all the time...

I've been saying this kind of thing so many times recently (in this blog etc), but like since coming back from school in Waterloo, back home, I haven't actually done that much. And I know that I do not want to do nothing. Looking ahead, I'm probably going to get a job, do some volunteer, get involved in the community, help some people in need, serving with fellowship/church and stuff like that. It's all stuff that I really want to do, but even now, when I'm at home, I can do more meaningful things.

Just looking at today, I woke up pretty early. I could have done more in the house (ie clean up house, etc) to help my family out. Many times throughout the day, I would tell myself to go do something, like say pull out the weeds from the front lawn, or maybe just go downstairs and see what needs cleaning. But many times I don't.

Every little action counts, every time I am doing something that is not meaningful (say..playing on OMGPOP), I am neglecting time where I can do something more meaningful, or even spend time with God.

It's true that it's ok to have time to relax and just chill..but those should be the minority, not the majority, even if its the summer break, and you're still jobless...at least that's how I want to live my life.

Again, saying is far from doing, and this is going to be a challenge however I think about it. But, no learning/change comes easy right?

Monday, 18 May 2009

The Challenge of the Christian Walk

I’ve been a Christian for many years now, and I’ve been to church for almost my whole life, but I’ve never been challenged by Christianity until this past year. I went to Campus Challenge 2009 this past weekend. The theme for the weekend was “Transformation” and the passage used was the Sermon of the Mount (Matt 5-7). The more specific theme passage would be Matthew 5:13-16, about being the salt and light of the world:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

That passage for me has always been significant. It’s really what being a Christian in this world is. Being a disciple, a follower of Christ, it is natural that we are different. We are the light in this world full of darkness, and as salt, we are called to be “mixed” in with the rest of the world, giving “flavour” and not just mingle around with other “salt”.

One of the topics (if not the main topic) that came up this weekend was righteousness (after all, we were studying the Sermon on the Mount). Righteousness. Holiness. Perfection. Just looking at the Sermon of the Mount, God has a high standard of righteousness for us. Going in to Campus Challenge this Saturday, I was on a spiritual low. I felt like I was doing nothing with my life; wasting it. I was seeing yet again the depths of my own sin, and just seeing how wretched I was. So when I saw the call to righteousness that Jesus is calling us to in the Sermon of the Mount, it really made me wonder and just praise God for His grace. I knew that I was deserving of His wrath. Yet God is able to forgive me and I know that He has a plan for me despite all the wrong I’ve done. That He could work and make something good happen from my brokenness, from my sin. He came down and shed His blood for us. He did everything for us. He loved us with a love we can’t even fathom. It just makes me amazed...Amazed that He would come down from heaven’s heights to greet us, to die for us, when we are just SO sinful. What does God feel when He looks down from His throne in heaven and sees us living life the way we live it? What does He think when He sees us sin time and time again? Isn’t He frustrated when He keeps trying to bring us to Him, but we turn away from Him? Isn’t He angry, seeing all the darkness in the world? He is, but the amazing thing is that I also know that He looks on us from heaven, and loves us. He sees what we are going through, and wants to be a part of it, He wants to suffer with us, to laugh with us, to cry with us, and He wants us to come into His arms.

How can we thank our Father for what He has done for us. We can’t even come close to repaying Him, but we can give our lives to Him. All the more reason to do everything we can to strive for righteousness. The essence of Christianity in a way, is to continually strive to be like Christ, to always persevere for holiness. I find lots of times, as Christians, we are prone to settling with what we have already. But being a disciple of Christ, we are to continually, always strive for more. There is more. We can always be better, we can always strive for perfection, just as Christ is perfect. We can always strive to have closer communion with our God, a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit. We can always be more filled with His Spirit, always capable of being more used by the Spirit. We can always love God more, love people more. And we can’t lose the motivation to persevere for more. We cannot settle. We cannot let ourselves be satisfied with where we are. We have to want more, be more. We need to want to be the light and salt of the world.

Being Christians, we’ve made a commitment to have a relationship with our God. Just like any relationship, commitment is so important. We need to be constantly committed to Him, committed to serve Him, to be like Him, to love Him.

That is the challenge. To never settle. To want with all your heart to become closer with God at all times, in all circumstances. If you lack motivation, we have to pray for it and look at what God has done for us. And find something to drive you to want more.

I think all of us know this, but sometimes we just don't want to enough. Or we are satisfied with our relationship with God and we don't strive hard enough. This is going off topic, but the issue even goes with our friends. All relationships require commitment. But lots of times, we either don't have time, or we don't put enough effort to connect with all our friends. We don't try to get to know them hard enough, or we don't put enough commitment into the relationship. Of course, sometimes it's just hard to balance all our friendships and to have commitment in all of them. But we can't not commit to our relationship with Christ, and we have to make Him our bestest friend, just like you would try to get to know someone you had a crush on really hard, except with God it's even more so! You have to be in LOVE with God, c'mon, just I WANT TO KNOW YOU MORE NOW! haha >_>