Asia Conference Thoughts

I have just came back from the second night of the Asia Conference. Yes its the studying week for those in NUS, but that is not stopping me from experiencing a historic event in the making.

For one, I truly believe exams doesnt mark the end of the world, it doesnt mean everything else in life other than studying should stop. The school culture here is too competitive that the first thought that normally comes if one makes time for other stuff is: Oh no! Im going to miss these few hours of revision! Im going to lose out to other people!

I succumb to such thoughts as well, but I tell myself, if I dont have a breakthrough in my mindset now, then when?

God has been speaking to me through this 2 days. Pastor Kong talked about the 3rd space, the elite and high flyers of the society. There is a stirring in my heart that God has not set me to be someone mediocre, but someone who can be the one Pastor says will 'engage the marketplace' and be invited by those from the 3rd space. Ultimately, this is what God wants and can bring us to. The 12 disciples who turned the world 'upside down' in Acts 17:6 are TRULY people like you and me and Jesus made that happened to show all of us can do it.

I have this one life to live it for the Lord and I feel the need to engage my 'marketplace' of NUS.

From being the class chairman in secondary school, to become Council President there, then to head the largest CCA in my JC, and becoming an officer in the army, and finally being appointed by the grace of God to serve Him as a cell group leader, I know He is not done with me yet. I am 21 years old now, there's so so much more I can and will do for Him. The only thing I know I cannot do is not to stay close by His side. The greater things I do for him, the more I need Him.

I also realise that strength is revealed under pressure and resistance. Today I would rather get my strength tested by being the light in the world out there in the marketplace, going through all the trials and mockery, than staying strong but just being strong within the church without being tested.

The years between 20 to 30, to me I feel, is going to be the golden years of my life. There will many opportunities to do big things and be successful and enjoy life by getting that coveted job. But this is also the best time to serve the Lord, to give all I am to Him to bring a great impact to the people around me. I want to choose the latter. I want to tell my Father when I am in heaven that I did my best for Him in NUS semester 1, not just scoring a good grade, but also because people has been blessed by my ministry.

In the end I am not perfect, I make mistakes, I fall and fail, but I know with what I have and as who I am, to God that is enough to be the salt and light. Amen!

Friends, what is the most important aim you have in life today?

Song(s) of the Week!

This will be a new segment by me every week! And the first song goes to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StN0OvNthJA

(Pleasant pleasant surprise! Enjoy the song! )

(I still don't know how to upload youtube videos yet! Next time will put the actual video for you)

You are wasting your time

Many a times I have to remind the enemy that he is wasting his time trying to put me down etc. Once God has settled it, its settled! Stop wasting my time trying to remind you the evil one!

And yes, not we can, but we did. Obama has won the election and the whole world is really still trying to grasp the significance of this victory. I read an article of Obama's half brother in Kenya saying how impropable it has been for Obama to be the US president.

The article wrote: (Obama's) story is that of a grandfather whose stubborn will found a match in a austereity of Islam and drove his son to seek a scholarship abroad, which in turn led the young man to Hawaii, where he met and married Ann, a Christian, and had a son - who, at 47, will become the first black President of the US.

I feel Obama is the personification of change. Change mindset, change values everything. I mean people in America is still saying that just 100 years ago it will be outrageous to even have a US president shaking hands and welcoming a black guest into the White House, and 100 years later we see an African American occupying the Oval Office. This is CHANGE man.

Its my prayers that he will move in God's wisdom, and be a man that can live up to his words. I think the world has seen too many broken promises made one after another. But people are giving Obama another chance to prove them wrong.

Well Im not a politically inclined person (unlike my brother), but I think to live in such a time to witness such a historic event is trully amazing and deserves my attention. 200 - 300 years down the road when Im with the Lord, my descendents will be talking about the day when US chose its first black president.

Personal

Once again, let me say all the below and above posts (that will come) are all part of my personal opinion and represent no organisation's stand. Thanks!

Believer

I can say I am called a believer not for nothing. And I am called a believer to believe in something. To believe that out of something dead something can resurrect, something going wrong will become right, someone with depression will become freed from it and that nothing will turn into something.

What do you believe in today?

As Obama's campaign slogan says, Change we can Believe in.

Obama. Minstry. NUS

This is the first time I have been so faithful in following the US presidential Election for my entire life. That fateful night which began with me wanting to find some entertainment over youtube brought my attention to Obama's Presidential Nominee Speech. After hearing him speak I was completely blown away by his vision and hope for a United States of America. I was captivated by his speeches and down-to-earth personality throughout the entire election.

Obama is certainly a far cry from George Bush, that Texas wildboy image seemed never to leave his tenure in the White House. Lauded as a national hero after 9-11, all he did was to drag the whole nation into political, military, social and now economic chaos- what 'WOW', or should I say 'WILD', things the 'national hero' had gotten America into. I pray that Obama will live up to his words of establishing the moral integrity of the nation in the world and I have this sensing he will make a great president.

Just got back some of my results as well, and although somewhat disappointed by my score in my film analysis paper, God is faithful and I was delighted to see the grade A for my sociology mid term test! I would honestly say I upheld the name of SOT (perhaps quite an exaggeration but anyways) by impressing my tutor on the subject of secularisation in the modern world. Praise the Lord!

I learnt one thing: Academic excellence and ministry fruitfulness go hand in hand together.

Another thing: Every disappointment can be changed into an active declaration of faith and confidence that God is faithful and will give the best to my life. What Marx regarded of God as 'the opium of the people' was to me a misintepretation of the faith people had in God. Accepting disappointment is an acknowledgement that we live in an imperfect world where we fail to have our expectations met, but it is also a confidence in God that despite all things, God works together for our good. Is that passive resignation to reality?

And as Obama proclaimed in his closing sentence of his Democratic Convention speech, he quoted from Hebrews 10:23 --

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope WITHOUT WAVERING, for HE who promised is FAITHFUL.