Sunday, July 26, 2009
Hi LOG.
you know today I tried so so hard to keep my emotions in check, and that I could still run the 50th anniversary. I went into ado twice, asking the Lord to take this burden away from me, the burden of being frustrated at the lack of commitment from our community members. It is hard for me to try and take things up as the chairman when I do not have the support of my entire community behind me. It is disappointing when there is a combined effort to be made and I just see the same few of us around and every other community is in full force.
However, I understand the situation that everyone is in. Nothing in church can be compulsory because it boils down to each and every one's choices - to go or not to go; to sacrifice our time or not; and whether we have that passion burning for our Lord Jesus Christ. So I concluded that all we can do is wait, for God's intervention in each and every one of our lives, and in His time, perhaps we would all be gathered again to serve ministry as a whole big group again.
But all I ask is that you understand that the leaders of this community are trying our best to turn around the situation, praying fervently to discern God's direction for us. Hence, it is no point saying things like, "LOG is dying," yet doing nothing about the situation - it only serves to make the fire in the rest of us die a little more. Our lives, as a community, are inter-twinned in the past, present and future therefore, the decisions you make concerning the community affects the community. So, in all relationships, be responsible about it and be frank about it; leaving something hanging there will only hurt people more.
What we need is a time of rest and refocus. After these 3 months of almost non-stop ministry, it is time to feed our spiritual hunger once again and I assure you I will persuade YMC to head in the same direction. Events will still come inevitably as we're part of Youth Ministry, but let us take the rest of the year to recharge and hold Jesus' hand again. I challenge each and everyone of you to hold His hand again and say, "Lord, wherever I am now, I pray that You will draw me closer each day." Do make yourself available for the upcoming retreat as we come together as Leaven of God once more.
God Bless
Mark
Friday, July 24, 2009
hello log :)
heres sth i came across while watching House ystd, a strange way for God to speak to anyone, but I supposed our God is quite strange.
"Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. Their purpose is to prove that your faith is geniune. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will recieve praise and glory and honour on the Day which Jesus Christ is revealed"
1 Peter 1:6-7
i think this verse kinda had a delayed effect on me, it didnt really speak to me until i was thinking about it during Deacon Harold's talk on surviving the culture of death. we all know God sends trials to test us, but i think the verse really showed the purpose of testing which is to allow your own faith to grow and endure. so be comforted, that the Lord God remembers and is with you always in every situation. maybe some of you are going through personal doubt, struggles with the faith, difficulties in ministry, lack of purpose/direction in life or simply caught up in Sin. be comforted that perhaps God is calling you to something deeper, a greater faith and trust in him.
recently ive been struggling with going back to school. I'm not exactly involved in school and i struggle with having a group of friends i can be comfortable with. up to now, i guess i havent found that and there are times where i feel mega lonely i just wanna cry and go home. so im super apprehensive about facing this new term, especially since there'll be modules im taking by myself :/ super big challenge for me. im not the kind of person whos all comfortable being alone in the midst of so many people. so i guess God is trying to teach me something? i havent quite figured it what, maybe its being comfortable with the fact that perhaps i dont need to be surrounded by people all the time. i guess in some way, God is calling me to trust, to silence. and i know, deep down, i can overcome all this and that i will come out stronger. its just the process of getting there. so whats your own trial/struggle that you're facing? maybe God is calling you to something deeper? have you wondered whats his purpose is in your trial? maybe you need sometime in prayer with God! (ado ado ado)
heres another verse to share, that might serve as strength
"For this reason we never becomes discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our attention , not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever"
2 Cor 4:16-18
I suppose for some of us, the decaying extends to the spiritual being. we feel far away from God, lost, distant, apathetic, perhaps we dont know how to connect with God anymore. I took something else out of episode of House I watched ystd, that is "If you're angry with God, it means you believe that God exists". I think in the same way, if we're able to feel all those spiritual dryness/lack of God in our lives, that we must at least believe that God exist. And yes, so perhaps only our fundamental faith remains but we are called and challenged to cling and rely on God alone. so perhaps what matters is that fundamental faith that Jesus died for you and me, he loves you and me and gives of himself in the Eucharist, and that he has a plan for you and me.
often i guess, we mix faith with feeling. as cliche as it sounds, i guess the world really "brainwashes" us to be sensationalistic people. we must feel, touch, hear, taste etc, so much so that when we dont feel God, we feel alone. But i guess like what St Paul says in 2Cor, the things we can see (feel) are temporary and transient and what we set our hopes and faith on are the intangible, the God we cannot see yet we know as the ever-living God. so perhaps in our own little ways, we called to be little Mother Teresas. We all know about how she felt distant from God for so many years in her life, yet she remains faithful. faithful to the God she knows exists, faithful to his teachings of love, charity, obdience and truth.
You and I are called to be faithful, and we cant do that alone. So I guess if you had the tenacity and patience to read up to here (haha), offer a prayer for the community/individuals :) and rmbr what community is all about. Not just you being with God, but us with God.
<3 jess.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Another Sunday Down
Hi guys, hope everyone is doing well.
Actually typed a post halfway last week but my cousin hijacked the computer, and afterwards it disappeared.
Just want to give a big thank god for our canteen! really awesome that we managed to sell all our stuff and still make $600. we should volunteer for more canteens and use this cutthroat strategy again haha :)
but what was amazing was that we were fretting over being unable to finish selling all the food and that we would just cover our costs, but after 11am mass it was WOW. brings us back to the passage of Jesus and his disciples on the boat. "YE OF LITTLE FAITH!" :( god understands our human emotions so thoroughly : (
Thanks Mark for the taize. Pray for Soo's gramma ya'll, hope she will recover.
God Bless everyone this week! Whether in doubt, in trouble, injoying (haha pun), share it with a friend and/or a logger!
Btw, hiya janice. Hope you're doing awesomely well and fine in zurich (did i get the place right?) god bless you too in your endeavors :) or did u move over to SE-A for your research stuff yet! i dont know! if u wanna blog just drop anybody the email for the password. hehe : )
popo
Hi LOG.
you know today I tried so so hard to keep my emotions in check, and that I could still run the 50th anniversary. I went into ado twice, asking the Lord to take this burden away from me, the burden of being frustrated at the lack of commitment from our community members. It is hard for me to try and take things up as the chairman when I do not have the support of my entire community behind me. It is disappointing when there is a combined effort to be made and I just see the same few of us around and every other community is in full force.
However, I understand the situation that everyone is in. Nothing in church can be compulsory because it boils down to each and every one's choices - to go or not to go; to sacrifice our time or not; and whether we have that passion burning for our Lord Jesus Christ. So I concluded that all we can do is wait, for God's intervention in each and every one of our lives, and in His time, perhaps we would all be gathered again to serve ministry as a whole big group again.
But all I ask is that you understand that the leaders of this community are trying our best to turn around the situation, praying fervently to discern God's direction for us. Hence, it is no point saying things like, "LOG is dying," yet doing nothing about the situation - it only serves to make the fire in the rest of us die a little more. Our lives, as a community, are inter-twinned in the past, present and future therefore, the decisions you make concerning the community affects the community. So, in all relationships, be responsible about it and be frank about it; leaving something hanging there will only hurt people more.
What we need is a time of rest and refocus. After these 3 months of almost non-stop ministry, it is time to feed our spiritual hunger once again and I assure you I will persuade YMC to head in the same direction. Events will still come inevitably as we're part of Youth Ministry, but let us take the rest of the year to recharge and hold Jesus' hand again. I challenge each and everyone of you to hold His hand again and say, "Lord, wherever I am now, I pray that You will draw me closer each day." Do make yourself available for the upcoming retreat as we come together as Leaven of God once more.
God Bless
Mark
0 Comments:
______________________________________________Friday, July 24, 2009
hello log :)
heres sth i came across while watching House ystd, a strange way for God to speak to anyone, but I supposed our God is quite strange.
"Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. Their purpose is to prove that your faith is geniune. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will recieve praise and glory and honour on the Day which Jesus Christ is revealed"
1 Peter 1:6-7
i think this verse kinda had a delayed effect on me, it didnt really speak to me until i was thinking about it during Deacon Harold's talk on surviving the culture of death. we all know God sends trials to test us, but i think the verse really showed the purpose of testing which is to allow your own faith to grow and endure. so be comforted, that the Lord God remembers and is with you always in every situation. maybe some of you are going through personal doubt, struggles with the faith, difficulties in ministry, lack of purpose/direction in life or simply caught up in Sin. be comforted that perhaps God is calling you to something deeper, a greater faith and trust in him.
recently ive been struggling with going back to school. I'm not exactly involved in school and i struggle with having a group of friends i can be comfortable with. up to now, i guess i havent found that and there are times where i feel mega lonely i just wanna cry and go home. so im super apprehensive about facing this new term, especially since there'll be modules im taking by myself :/ super big challenge for me. im not the kind of person whos all comfortable being alone in the midst of so many people. so i guess God is trying to teach me something? i havent quite figured it what, maybe its being comfortable with the fact that perhaps i dont need to be surrounded by people all the time. i guess in some way, God is calling me to trust, to silence. and i know, deep down, i can overcome all this and that i will come out stronger. its just the process of getting there. so whats your own trial/struggle that you're facing? maybe God is calling you to something deeper? have you wondered whats his purpose is in your trial? maybe you need sometime in prayer with God! (ado ado ado)
heres another verse to share, that might serve as strength
"For this reason we never becomes discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our attention , not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever"
2 Cor 4:16-18
I suppose for some of us, the decaying extends to the spiritual being. we feel far away from God, lost, distant, apathetic, perhaps we dont know how to connect with God anymore. I took something else out of episode of House I watched ystd, that is "If you're angry with God, it means you believe that God exists". I think in the same way, if we're able to feel all those spiritual dryness/lack of God in our lives, that we must at least believe that God exist. And yes, so perhaps only our fundamental faith remains but we are called and challenged to cling and rely on God alone. so perhaps what matters is that fundamental faith that Jesus died for you and me, he loves you and me and gives of himself in the Eucharist, and that he has a plan for you and me.
often i guess, we mix faith with feeling. as cliche as it sounds, i guess the world really "brainwashes" us to be sensationalistic people. we must feel, touch, hear, taste etc, so much so that when we dont feel God, we feel alone. But i guess like what St Paul says in 2Cor, the things we can see (feel) are temporary and transient and what we set our hopes and faith on are the intangible, the God we cannot see yet we know as the ever-living God. so perhaps in our own little ways, we called to be little Mother Teresas. We all know about how she felt distant from God for so many years in her life, yet she remains faithful. faithful to the God she knows exists, faithful to his teachings of love, charity, obdience and truth.
You and I are called to be faithful, and we cant do that alone. So I guess if you had the tenacity and patience to read up to here (haha), offer a prayer for the community/individuals :) and rmbr what community is all about. Not just you being with God, but us with God.
<3 jess.
0 Comments:
______________________________________________Sunday, July 05, 2009
Another Sunday Down
Hi guys, hope everyone is doing well.
Actually typed a post halfway last week but my cousin hijacked the computer, and afterwards it disappeared.
Just want to give a big thank god for our canteen! really awesome that we managed to sell all our stuff and still make $600. we should volunteer for more canteens and use this cutthroat strategy again haha :)
but what was amazing was that we were fretting over being unable to finish selling all the food and that we would just cover our costs, but after 11am mass it was WOW. brings us back to the passage of Jesus and his disciples on the boat. "YE OF LITTLE FAITH!" :( god understands our human emotions so thoroughly : (
Thanks Mark for the taize. Pray for Soo's gramma ya'll, hope she will recover.
God Bless everyone this week! Whether in doubt, in trouble, injoying (haha pun), share it with a friend and/or a logger!
Btw, hiya janice. Hope you're doing awesomely well and fine in zurich (did i get the place right?) god bless you too in your endeavors :) or did u move over to SE-A for your research stuff yet! i dont know! if u wanna blog just drop anybody the email for the password. hehe : )
popo
Labels: canteen