Be a Nehemiah

Then I said . . . 'Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.' . . . So they said, 'Let us rise up and build.' Then they set their hands to this good work. Nehemiah 2:17-18

A city wall in ruins was a very bad thing in ancient days. It left a city vulnerable to both physical attack and hurtful ridicule from neighboring powers. In Jerusalem's case, the unrepaired wall also gave foreigners a reason to scorn God, whose holy city it was. And that is why Nehemiah wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed for several days when he heard the news of the condition of the wall, which had been destroyed and neglected for more than a century.

During the 120 years after the walls were torn down by the Chaldeans (2 Chronicles 36:19), generations of Jerusalem's people had looked at the ruins and done nothing. Maybe to them, rebuilding the wall looked like an impossible challenge, even though the city possessed plenty of workers. What the people needed was someone to rally them, plan their course of action, and take them through the rebuilding process. What they needed was a leader. They needed Nehemiah. Remarkably, it took the people only fifty-two days to rebuild the city wall. And they were able to do it because they had a great leader to navigate for them.

Will you be a Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem? This is my personal challenge to you. In whatever capacity you are, what we need is your willingness and heart to do the job.

Oh, Tuhan

Oh, Tuhan pimpinlah langkahku. Aku tidak berani jalan sendiri. HanyaMu yang boleh memegang tanganku dan membawaku ke jalan yang betul.

Tuhan, engkaulah kekuatanku. BersamaMu ku tidak akan goyang. Dengan itu, hamba sedar bahawa hamba akan terbang tinggi bagai rajawali denganMu pada suatu hari nanti. Hamba akan terbang dengan kemuliaanMu. Biar bumi bergoncang dan badai menerpa, ku akan terbang tinggi bersamaMu.

Persembahanku kepadaMu tidak akan dapat menebus semua perbuatan-perbuatanku yang tidak kubanggakan. Tidak walaupun Dikau memberikanku masa sejuta tahun. Hamba mohon agar Tuhan memaafkan segala perbuatan dosaku yang telah memalukan namaMu dan agamaku.

KasihMu kepadaku tidak dapat dinyatakan sekadar menggunakan kata-kata. KasihMu padaku sejauh timur dari barat. Hamba begitu tersentuh dengan kasihMu, dengan pengorbananMu. Oh Tuhan, terima kasih atas segala-galanya.

Son of encouragement

To be a Son of encouragement to others is the noblest service one can provide for kingdom's work. What I needed most in my most difficult moment were those few words of assurance I received from my fellow committee. Indeed it is more than words can say. Few words of encouragement can really provide one with confident, certainty of what's ahead and humbleness to depend solely on God. I am really glad today when Uncle Leong Yan challenged all of us. I am challenged, I hope and pray you are challenged too. Let's strive to rebuild KCCY together. With your help and mine, most importantly, with help from above, God willing, we will succeed.

good blogger

Praise to the Lord that we have a budding blogger in Hou Yuen.. Thanks to him for giving us good self-questioning posts. People, if you're reading this, remember that all we do is for you and we hope that you will start to rethink your life if you're not growing well and start to make changes..

God can wait.. You can't. it's a one shot chance. Don't miss the bus.

God centered comradeship

Went to the zoo with the Sunday School today. Having spent a day with more than 35 young kids it's really tiring. Seeing them has given me a lot of new ideas and essentially put back some fire in me for the children and youth work. What I really needed now is a team of people who's like minded to pursue what God has called me into. I am certain that God's purpose is for the church and not for lone ranger. Practically working in a team for a common cause is fun and exciting. The God centered comradeship can really be the link and engine for every ministry.

Christmas isn't Christmas till it happens in your heart

Carolling from house to house, 'makan-makan', 'main-main', proclaiming joy and peace for He is the reason for the season, yea!

The big idea is to make this an event where all of us can have some fun singing and eating from house to house. Not expecting a top class singing carollers but simply a time of sharing Christmas together in a . I believed this going to be a memorable experience for many of our young ones.

Remember what we shared few days ago, building up the young ones? I'm really committed to make this the turning point for all of us. We really need to supplicate this to God through our prayer individually. Forgetting what lies behind and press on towards the goal set before us. That's exactly what we need to do. We need to pray for each other, for the young ones and for the ministry as a whole, for protection from rumours, for the activities we have planned, for support from one towards another, for God to raise committal young ones and for great awakening!

Consider it pure joy my dear brother and my dear sister when we faced trial of many kinds. Be courageous and be victorious in our walk in Him!

If I perish, I perish

"For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God...Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
We must act at all time with the assumption that He was handling the situation, only always taking care to obey instructions. He learned obedience, obedience unto death; and now as the Almighty, He does not ask us to be any weaker or any more foolish than He was prepared to be Himself; for the cross was both the weakness of God and the foolishness of Him"

I'm so glad to finally realize that If I perish, I perish. Death unto self but lives unto God. From small menial things to the task God set before us. How many times we might have forgotten not to depend on our own strength but entirely drawing from Him who gives us sufficient strength in our weakest moment.

I am deeply touched and utterly comforted, encouraged, challenged and truly blessed by your commitment and challenge. From the bottom of my humbled heart, thank you my dear sister and my dear brother for your sharing. You have lighten up my days and provided sufficient energy for me to press on. It's an answered prayer to me, no doubt it's God sent and it's pure comfort from above and that's all I need!

Ending here echoing Paul own words that has lifted me up and I prayed that it will do unto you as well; "I was in fact crushed, overwhelmed and desperate. I feared I would never live through it. I thought I would doomed to die and saw how powerless I was to help myself...but that was good, for then I put everything into the hands of God, Who alone could save me, for He can even raise the dead, and He did..."