the Jesus that I have always told you about...

You may be lost right now and as the emptiness sets in,
the sudden realisation that you are all alone,
that everything seems so meaningless,
that nothing appears to satisfy you anymore;
You have come to the end of the road.

No way forward,
No right turn,
Nor is there a left turn,
You've got no where to go.

All you can see is the darkness that consumed your future,
A once bright and perfect life that you thought you have
Has become the bleak and lifeless person you are right now.

No where to run,
No where to hide,
No where to seek comfort,
You've got no where to go.

The floodgates opened and you realised,
that the best you could do now
is to let the tears flow down,
flow down like a river.

And you remembered that very night
I told you about the Jesus that I know.

You may not see Him, You may not feel Him,
You may not even know Him; but He knows you.
Hold on and stay strong, because help is on the way
This is the Jesus who loves me.
This is the Jesus who never forsakes me.
This is the Jesus whom I have been trying to tell you about.
And this is the Jesus who is going to help you.

He says He loves you,
Just reach out and take His hand
He says He longs for you to come into His presence,
Just open your heart and let Him in
He says you are His,
Just believe in Him.

The floodgates remains opened;
but the tears that once brought sorrow,
have now given you much joy,
for you have believed in your heart,
the Jesus that I have always told you about.

The Reason to Celebrate!

Psalm 13
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me.

I believe many of us have been in such circumstances whereby you just felt so helpless and weak, so troubled and sad. The overwhelming sorrow in your heart causes the floodgates to open and all you can do is to cry and cry and cry. God seems to be so distant, and you question God, "Where are You?"

Perhaps you have a broken family, a broken relationship, or someone dearest to you just died. Perhaps you have just met with a failure; a massive debt you have incurred is haunting you. Your future looked so bleak, your life seemed so pointless; you are at the deepest valley.

King David experienced this too. Verses 1-4 tells us the difficult situation he was in and the sorrow and desperation that he felt during those days. He questioned God in his desperation, "Why, why is all these happening? Where are You? Are you going to help me?"

Yet, what did King David do after expressing his immediate emotions? He rejoiced and sang praises to God. More than that, he celebrated. A celebration in the midst of a difficult situation - that's surrender. King David celebrated because God had helped him so many times in his life and he knew that God was going to come true for him once again despite the tough situation he was facing. He celebrated because he trusted God when God said that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He celebrated because He knew that God's plan was the best for him. He celebrated because he knew that God was with him.

Whatever that God says He is, He is. It is up to us to believe it or not. God cannot do anything if you don't believe that He can. King David did and God help him. What about you?

A father will never leave his child alone. The cries of the child will soften the father's heart, and the joy of the child will bring joy to the father. When a child celebrate, his father will also celebrate. If you dance and sing before God, He will take you by His hands and dance and sing with you.

How can we not celebrate when we know that God loves us and He will ALWAYS be with us? How can we not celebrate when we know that the greatest of all is for us?

How can we not celebrate?
How can we not celebrate?

A Year of Transformation

"If you want to see something that you have never seen before, then you must do something that you have never done before. But if you do something that you always do, then you will see what you have always seen."
- Pastor Ed Silvoso, in the recently concluded Transformation Conference '09

In the beginning of this year, God impressed upon me that this year will be a year of transformation for me, that He will work mightily through my life, raising a strong warrior for His Kingdom. I was excited of course, and started off this year feeling good and hopeful about it. I was so determined at first, but lost that fire halfway through.

In God's perfect plan for me, He reminded me that He is going to do a new work in me. This was what happened.

Chris told me that his twin brother, Ben, had just won the top award in his unit. This wasn't any ordinary award because his unit had the toughest trainings and they were considered as the cream of the crops in the entire organisation. The best amongst the cream, that makes the award so special. I am very inspired by Ben because he always strives to give his best for the glory of God and it seems like nothing can stop him from doing that, NOTHING. His life is a testimony of God's grace and power, and the songs that Ben wrote reflects all that.

In his song "Things That Matter", he wrote "help me be the best that I can be, every single day" and here he is, giving his best for our great God every single day. What a great testimony and inspiration.

As I was reflecting, God led me to last year, when He placed Chris into my life. It was my first time seeing someone who was (and still is) so real to God. Through the tough times, Chris never gave up. I was a chaotic and messed up guy then and had caused him much distress and yet, he continued to shower God's love upon my life. He may not be perfect (none of us are) but He was shining so brightly in the kingdom of darkness, planting seeds of love in the lives of many, including me. If it weren't for his persistent prayers and faith in God that He will do something about my life, I don't think I will be who I am today.

God does have an interesting way of doing things. He sent this amazing twins into my life to show me that God is indeed in the business of transformation and my life can also be a testimony and inspiration to the lives of many if only I believe. That very day after the conference, I decided to make a decision for God - to give my best every single day of my life.

Through the lives of Chris and Ben, God showed me that He can do the same thing in my life. How can I reject this amazing offer that God has given to me? A year of transformation? Yes, this will be a year of transformation for me. As Pastor Ed said in the quote above, I will do what I have never done before (to give my best every single day of my life) and God will let me see things that I have never seen!

A Big Wake-Up Call

by Chris Seow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I watched this video last week and I was surprised by how moved I was. Yes, call it over-hyped, or say that 'her voice isn't THAT amazing', but I think we all have a little bit to learn from this. Is susan boyle ugly? or are we? thats the questions ringing in british tabloids, and questions that we should dig deep into. Seeing how the crowd, and even many of us watching on youtube ( I too am guilty), misjudged susan with an immediate assumption that she was bound to be another 'william hung', indeed shows the decadence of our society. This is, as judge Amanda so well put into words, 'a big wake-up call'.

I admit I'm really running on emotions here, but I would not be ashamed to be associated with this big brouhaha regarding susan boyle. As the people of God, we are called to be not of this world, we are called to see in the eyes of Jesus. So often we neglect it, with our stereotyping and labeling. We do it everywhere, from the casual conversations to the prayer meetings. I think this is something we are all very aware of.

But another underlying question would be, did susan boyle have to open her mouth and display her power voice before we gave her a chance, a little respect as a fellow human? After all, if susan did not 'redeem' herself with her voice, the world would have dismissed her as a wanna-be or a weirdo, or even dissed her and laughed at her.

But angelic voice OR NOT, susan boyle is God's beautiful child, and she is a delightful jewel in Jesus eyes. We need to even go beyond what the world is saying now about not judging a book by its cover, its more than that. We need to love unconditionally, challenge ourselves to be more Christ-like. To put it plainly, we have to love not just the Susan Boyles but the William Hungs as well. I do not support the crowd's reaction, before AND after she sang, but I just think this video serves as a good reminder to all of us, to cut out the stereotyping, labeling, belittling, mocking, for in the kingdom of God there is NO SUCH THING.