jacks51: on getting better, dead like me and needing to pray

yea, was feeling better on Monday, so decided to go for a short cycling trip to get the blood circulation going. Dad was off on that day, so before I went outta the house, he asked me where was I heading off to. I said "Just around the area la", and he told me be extra careful, lotsa vehicles in the morning, and why not go try that little stretch near the beach front. There's this small road that's about 5 minutes' bike ride away from my home, from there you can see the J.B. town-scape across the Straits of Johore.

So I went there on my dad's "lau pok chia"; but no kick leh. In the end, I cycled all the way to end of Admiralty West Road (near Sembawang Beach liao). via Senoko Road. Thank God for the great weather* - it was a good 1 & 1/2 hour journey to and fro. Then U-turned via the relatively new road through Sembawang, Admiralty and Woodlands New town. Even managed to cycle past the new church site. So funny, there a lot of buntings and flags on the other site (the proposed CC site). Think they held a 7th lunar month-end or 8th lunar month-start temple celebration la. But there was none of our church site. Said a short prayer and headed back home.

in the afternoon plonked down in front of the laptop and watched 3 episodes of "Dead Like Me". It's a super quirky and dark-humored series. Loved the dialog and witticisms;quite macabre and dark actually. No wonder they showed it so late night on Channel 5; but I guess it wouldn't be appropriate for children to watch it on prime time, cos' they probably would pick up all sorts of cussing and weird ideas^ from the show. Might buy the DVD series for this show in the future.

Last night went for the opening of the 7th All Asia EFC Conference. It was at the Furama Riverfront Hotel. I have seriously no idea where that place is, cos' I'm really bad with hotel landmarks in Singapore. But when I reached there, I recognized it as the hotel besides the "lak sa bar" place. ok, before i get sued for defamation, I must qualify my statement. "Tian an men" is a "VIP KTV Executive lounge"; I've never been inside the joint**, so I don't know on a personal level what goes on inside. But the gigantic gaudy neon display outside the joint does remind me of all my NS-buddies' tales of yore of the seedy places they visited. So there.

But enough digression, back to the conference. Pastor Edmund gave an opening note to start off the conference. It was on Exodus 18:19-22, on Jethro's advice to Moses on how to delegate out duties to capable men. By the way, the theme of the conference is "Leadership for Global Missions". Pastor Ed was using this passage to remind the various leaders in the conference that much as we are to select capable men out for leadership roles, as leaders ourselves, we are not to forget the 2 things which God ask us as leaders to do.

The 2 fundamental things leaders should do is to pray, and to teach the Word of God i.e. the apostolic role echoed in Acts 6:4, which is also found in Exodus 18:19-22. As the "people's representative before God" (v19) i.e. a priest of God's people, leaders can only only do that via intercession and prayer to God. In "teaching them the decrees and the laws, and showing them the way to live^^ and the duties they are to perform^^" (v20), i.e.a prophet to God's people, leaders can only do it through teaching the Word of God to His people.

Time and time again, I am reminded that I need to pray constantly and consistently to my Heavenly Father. Not only because I am taking up leadership responsibilities, but for the singular fact I am to build up a relationship with the Lord and Saviour of my life. How can one get to know a person better without spending time with the other party? Sad to say, I'm still far from this. I can only ask the Lord to continue to grant me perseverance, and to continuously remind myself I need to come before Him constantly. As I hear all the great men of faith who went before me, don't even think about anything else, of ministry, of growth, or reaching out, if our own faith and lives are not anchored in the Lord. If we truly want to soar, we must first surrender to Him and let God take us up on His wings.