Home worship

I'm a huge fan of Sunday worship services. There's just something special about gathering with other brothers and sisters and worshiping God together. Normally, I would attend service with my parents in the morning, but because my mom has a bit of difficulty getting around, and because of granny's funeral, my dad was still in China and wasn't available to drive us to worship service this Sunday. So instead of venturing out, my mom and I we decided to stay in and conduct our own service instead.

It was the first time that I got to be the worship leader (aka I found a good praise song on youtube and played it), as well as the presider (aka I said the opening prayer for our time together). It was a simple service, but it was so refreshing at the same time. Although I still love Sunday worship services, but God reminded me that we have the ability to worship Him anywhere, anytime. What freedom! What sovereignty!

Have you ever conducted your own worship service?

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture."

Crying out for the lost Part 2

Earlier, I had blogged about the challenge that Jaeson Ma had called us to, to cry out to God twice daily for the lost. Doing this for the first couple of days was quite exciting and fun; I would pray for whoever was around me at that time, my co-workers, my friends, my family, random strangers on the road. It was really refreshing to drop everything and spend a minute or two praying for those who had not yet received God's free gift of salvation.

But, just as human nature would have it, I started getting lazy, and the prayers started sounding the same...

Interestingly, God used my granny's funeral to refresh my heart for the lost. My granny's funeral was a very traditional Chinese funeral, so picture lots of chanting, and wailing, and people you never met trying to send their condolences. In the beginning, I spent my time trying to figure out what these people were actually chanting, but after awhile, I knew it was a hopeless cause, so I started praying for the people that were there. Every time the chanting got loud (and annoying), my desperation would grow, and the prayers that I shouted to God (in my heart) would get louder and more urgent. This went on for hours... from morning until night...

Although the funeral was a sad and long affair, but this episode showed me how many people were still lost. It showed me how many were still in darkness, clinging onto old traditions that cannot save them. Although I didn't get to use words to share the gospel with anyone that day, but I trust that God heard my prayers and petitions. I know that He loves us too much to forsake us.

Are you crying out for the lost too?

"Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy."

Egg tarts

In preparation for granny's funeral, we planned to meet early in the morning to get a head start on our drive to China. With the gloom and doom already so thick in the air, waking up early for a long road trip was probably not on the list of things that any one of us wanted to do... so what does this call for? Fresh hot egg tarts!

"Love... endures all things", even waking up early for long road trips to get to somewhere you don't even want to go...

Yoyo!

It was one of my best friend's birthday yesterday, but unfortunately, all I was able to get around to do was bbm her. How horrible. I had wanted to send her an ecard, but couldn't find one that was nice. Then, I found this snazzy program from Simlebox that lets you create your own! So that's just what I did! I hope she likes it (and approves of the pictures. :P) Next time, I'll try to get the premium edition and add either Lady Gaga's Paparazzi, or Bon Jovi's I'll Be There for You in it; those were our summer songs!

Love challenge: Send love in creative ways!

The gift of time

Some people say that the most precious thing on earth are diamonds. Other people say it's gold. I think it's time! We only get 24 hours of it in a day, and only 60 minutes in one hour. If there was a genie that could grant me 3 wishes, I would definitely want one of them to be to double the amount of time we get in one day!

This week, I continue to be super swamped at work, and with the recent events that have occurred, it seems as if the things I have to deal with just keeps growing... exponentially. And yet, today, I just felt like I should give time to people.

So, rather than surrey back to the office to work on some analysis in excel, I took the time to have a long lunch to get to know one of my clients better, which was really refreshing, because most of us business people just defaulting to mere small talk or zeroing in on business deals. I also left work early to accompany my parents to run errands and to drive them home.

Although I'm starting to get a little dizzy thinking about all the work that awaits me at the office tomorrow, yet I know that the time I spent today was not wasted. I trust that relationships were built, and that people were loved. Besides, the work will always be there...

Love challenge: Reconsider where your priorities lie; work will always remain here on earth, but relationships will carry over into eternity.

Crying out for the lost

At the Kingdom Advance conference that I went to this past Saturday, we learned about how to make disciples, and one of the things that Jaeson Ma challenged us to do was to pray for the lost. Before planning any activities, or sitting down with anyone, prayer is the first thing we should do, and it is the most important thing we can do. Jaeson challenged us to cry out to God every day, twice a day, at 10:02 a.m. and 10:02 p.m. If the lost are to be saved, we need to cry out to God to remember His people, to save the lost, and to send out harvesters into the harvest field. We need to cry out in faith, trusting that our God of the universe will send the perfect people at the perfect time, to bring the Good News of His salvation to the hurting, needy, poor, and lost of this world.

So we set alarms on our phones, and we have been praying. I decided that I will not only be praying for harvesters, but I will be praying for those who are lost - by name. Today, I prayed for one of my close friends and my cousins. Tomorrow, I will pray for my dad and my coworkers. Most of all though, I pray that God will empower me to keep praying, to keep trusting, and to keep loving the lost.

Love challenge: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Loving Dad Part 3

So my church is showing Jaeson Ma's 1040 movie tonight to raise funds for our new church plant. Jaeson Ma will also be there to perform one of his new songs. Needless to say, I've been looking forward to this event ever since I heard about it a few months back, and I was definitely one of the first to load up on some tickets, so that I could invite believing and non-believing friends alike to join me.

Sadly, my granny, who hasn't been feeling so well lately, passed away this past weekend, and after a long week away from home to be with her, my dad came back to HK today. So of course I dropped everything to spend time with him, to encourage him and to grieve with him. Poor dad. He loves my grandma so much. Although I'm going to miss being with my church to witness the revival that God will bring through this movie, but I'm so glad to be able to be an encouragement to my dad too. I pray that he will see and experience God's love, and be comforted, because God promises to comfort those who mourn. (Matthew 5:4)

Love challenge: Think of others' needs before your own.