Holy Man
By: Beck Hansen, Mr. Loco
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Because you're there when I awake
And then you give me a life so great
Because the children with you can play
I think, I think I am
Because when I speak, you're always there
People listen, what I can tell
Because you're my gospel, my daily bread
That's why I think I am
I am I am I am I am
I think I am
I feel I am
I'm glad I am
I'm proud I am
A real religious man
I am I am I am I am
I pray I am
I feel I am
Oh Lord I am
God knows I am
A real religious man
?? you're my best friend
Can separate a chance from fate
Because you have all I need to take
That's why I think I am, I am, I am oohh
The silent prayer, I just ??
Saints and sinners aren't quite the same
This is my temple, the whole wide world
That's why I think I am, I am
I am I am I am I am
I think I am
I'm glad I am
I'm proud I am
A real religious man
I am I am I am I am
I pray I am
I feel I am
Oh Lord I am
God knows I am
A real religious man
I am I am I am I am
I pray I am
I feel I am
Oh Lord I am
God knows I am
A real religious man
A real religious man
A real religious man
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(Taken from http://www.whiskeyclone.net/ghost/songinfo.php?songID=772)
Funny, in this world, we will always be tempted by the things that we thought we have already committed over to the Lord. For me, it came particularly strong these few days, over lust of the eye, over lust of the flesh, and over pride of life.
This morning, as I wake up bleary-eyed, suddenly I thought over the things I did the last few days. I was amazed that some of the old sins that came back to haunt me, even in the midst of my busyness. Then I realised 2 things:
1) To be tempted is not the same as being falling back into temptation to sin. I think many a times I felt soiled and unworthy, because of some thoughts I had in my mind* (which I thought I had committed over to the Lord). Then this morning I realised, that to be tempted is not the same as fallen back into an old sin.
2) Even when I do sin, the Lord Jesus never said "oh, "jia lat!" you scoundrel^! Ingrate! How can you go back to your old ways!"**
Instead, Jesus will say," Jack, my friend, my brother. Never mind. Pick yourself up again. I will walk with you through this."
Such is the marvellous love and grace of my Savior, my Lord! It does not mean God is pleased when I fall back into old sins; nor does it mean I will not be judged by Him for all the missteps I've taken. But as the master disciple-maker, Jesus (who've been through all that I have experienced and will experience) understands my human frailties and helps me in this process of becoming a worthy vassal of God.
yea, they are pretty basic principles. But yours truly can be quite dense and thick in the brains department at times. Give thanks with me, and I pray these will bless you too, at the start of the week. :>
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*because of the evilness of my own heart, and/or due to the scheming of the evil one.
^ my engerland really cannot make it. Forgot how to spell the word, so first I typed "scroundel". Then I typed "scoundle". Think need to go read up my english dictionary again..
** Most probably I'm hearing the voice of the evil one, if I do hear these lines...
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Band: Petra
Album: Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out
Track: Salvation Belongs To Our God
Salvation belongs to our God
Who sits upon the throne
And unto the Lamb
Praise and glory
Wisdom and thanks
Honor and power and strength
Be to our God forever and ever
Be to our God forever and ever
And we the redeemed shall be strong
In purpose and unity
Declaring aloud
Copyright 1989 Petra
Printed from Firestream.net
(Taken from http://www.firestream.net/viewlyrics.php?id=6229&band=Petra&album=Petra%20Praise:%20The%20Rock%20Cries%20Out&year=1989)
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
Suddenly this old song just pop into my brains. I wonder why...
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Julian Lennon - Salt Water (from the album "HELP YOURSELF")
We are a rock revolving
Around a golden sun
We are a billion children
Rolled into one
So when I hear about
The hole in the sky
Saltwater wells in my eyes
We climb the highest mountain
We'll make the desert bloom
We're so ingenious
We can walk on the moon
But when I hear of how
The forests have died
Saltwater wells in my eyes
I have lived for love
But now that's not enough
For the world I love is dying
(And now I'm crying)
And time is not a friend
(No friend of mine)
As friends we're out of time
And it's slowly passing by..yyy...yyy...yyy
Right before our eyes
We light the deepest ocean
Send photographs of Mars
We're so enchanted by
How clever we are
Why should one baby
Feel so hungry she cries
Saltwater wells in my eyes
I have lived for love
But now that's not enough
For the world I love is dying
(And now I'm crying)
And time is not a friend
(No friend of mine)
As friends we're out of time
And it's slowly passing by..yyy...yyy...yyy
Right before our eyes
We are a rock revolving
Around a golden sun
We are a billion children
Rolled into one
What will I think of me
The day that I die
Saltwater wells in my eyes
Saltwater wells in my eyes
(Taken from http://www.song-teksten.com/song_lyrics/julian_lennon/help_yourself/saltwater/ )
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Restaurants |
| Cuisine: | Indian |
| Location: | Blk 662, Buffalo Road, #01-16, Singapore 210662. |
I get the strangest revelations, in the weirdest place. There I was swimming my normal style i.e. breast-stroke.* Usually I swim quite "relaxed"-ly one. But hor, the other lane next to mine got this lady swimmer quite "hiong", swimming none stop. So my male egg-o told me not to lose out. So I swam continuously, without gliding. Just keep on stroking. Managed to out-pace and out-swam the lady swimmer. (yee har! :p ) And the momentum in the water just keeps my body moving, so hardly any effort...
after a while, I lost interest in the "race", and chill at one end of the pool. Decided to pull some more laps off, so as to make my $1 entrance fee into the swimming pool maximise its value for money. ;D Decided to do the proper sequence i.e. stroke-glide-stroke-glide... and guess what? it's actually more tiring to do that.
Why? Because when you glide in the water, you gotta keep your body stream-lined and level. You do that by arching your butts up**; if not, your legs will go lower than your head in the water, creating more "drag" and slowing your momentum down... So when you glide, you gotta actually keep your posture correct, in order to keep going forward with the same speed.
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well, what's my takeaway from this simple lesson in swimming?
1. Sometime we may keep up a routine (keep stroking and stroking), and that may pushes us ahead in life. But that's not the best way to train up. We gotta do the proper rhythm of work ("stroke") and rest ("glide").
2. Even in rest, still takes effort. One must keep posture right in life to glide through life. It's difficult for us to let go and to let the Spirit pull us through, only because we resist and we don't keep our posture right.
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*Commonly known as frog style, because you look like like a frog in motion while swimming.
** not that your butts stick out of the water. It's a funny sight if you do that. Don't think frogs swim like that too...
okay, had this weird conversation amongst the few of us walking over to a friend's place after church yesterday's afternoon. The boyfriend of one of my friend just came back from London for his summer study break. So one of my friend asked him what is a "spotted dick". Reason being he keeps hearing how the Brits love it. Then the boyfriend said there's no way the British could have come up with such a name for anything, them being the cultured and refined folks, with their Queen's English and what-nots. So we actually wanna do a "Google-search" or wikipedia search. But we forgot all about it after arriving at the destination, because we all wanna play our favourite card game.
So here's the answer to that question. A spotted dick is a British Desert. Don't asked me why it's not a spotted Tom, or a Spotted Henry. Ask a Brit, he might be able to tell you...
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Drama |
helped out at a friend's video shoot the other day. My first time as a grip*. Always wondered what a grip does, because always see this appears in the credit roll of a film. Well, turns out basically to be a runner for the director and camera-man. Kinda fun, brings back fond memories of secondary school days in the drama club, doing up props and backstage work.
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oh, turns out i know the female lead actress from my university days. Just know her as an acquaintance from my Counter-striking days. Kinda weird, because for the corporate video, she has to act up as a "extra cute-sy" counter girl. there's just two things i cannot reconcile:
1) Back when we were counter-striking days, if my memory still serves me correct^, this girl was a pretty fierce and aggressive player. While I won't call her "Xena: Warrior Princess" or "Harridan Harriet", she can cuss and swear in leetspeak** with the rest of us during a game of counter-strike. So there's a dissonance when i see her being directed by my friend to act extra "kawaii", while underneath I know what she can be like...
2) where to find such a "chio bu" as a counter girl? 
okay, she's not say "super choiz". Maybe just the typical/stereotypical male fantasy i.e. long-haired, fair-complexioned, eyes a big bigger than usual and nice teeth. If described like that, "pretty common what" you will think. But usually it's very difficult to find them willing to work behind the desk as front-line counter girls.^^
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Though video-shooting might be fun, it's actually a lot of work. For that 5-10 minutes worth of usable footage, we need to shoot at least 3-4 hours worth of film. This is because got to get the actors warmed up, then have to wait for lighting, then have to wait for big boss to come and give the go-ahead... and so on and so forth. I only did the minimal stuff, and my back was killing me a bit. Can't imagine the ladies who were handling the cameras - how they handled with the stiff necks from holding the cameras in position for such a long time.
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* see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grip_%28job%29
^ afterall, it's been 5 years since I left university days. Memory could have gone all the way downhill... :D
** e.g. "SMLJ??! Chao camper!!!! piangz, gu-niang CT mai zao!!!" oh, these are the milder ones, the more colorful phrases cannot put in print. 儿童不宜
^^ either that, or I haven't been seeing enough of the world. Maybe I should leave my place in front of the laptop and go walk, walk around more often...
Wanted to use this song for worship in CG tonight, but was afraid can't find the lyrics or pronunciation keys. By His grace, Galvin posted the lyrics in his blog entry on the passing away of his grandmother last year. Had also a chance to read through his experiences through it all. And I gave thanks for the blessing the honest sharing that out brother went through over the loss of a loved one. Indeed God is good, even through the low points when we walked through the valley of the shadow of death...
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真正好
JIN JIA HO
真正好
JIN JIA HO
来信耶稣真正好
LAI
真正好
JIN JIA HO
来信耶稣真正好
LAI
我拜一，拜二
拜三，拜四
BAI SA, BAI SI
拜五，拜六
BAI GOR, BAI LAK
整个礼拜
GUI EH LEH BAI
真正好
JIN JIA HO
来信耶稣真正好
LAI
(Taken from http://galvin.worshipsingapore.com/archives/2005/02/wake_details.php#comments )
| Rating: | ★★★ |
| Category: | Restaurants |
| Cuisine: | Japanese / Sushi |
| Location: | #01-85, Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road, Singapore 199583. |
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Restaurants |
| Cuisine: | Chinese |
| Location: | #01-10, Lavender Food Square Centre, 195 Lavender Street, Singapore 338758 |
Previous Saturday, was in church with a few friends playing the card game "Bang!". We separated after the Dawn prayer sessions, so there were two groups of us having breakfast at different locations. So after a few calls and mis-communications, we decided to head back to church and play the game. Five of us, three in one group and two in the other.* Three of us reached earlier and sat down in the tentage, to wait for the other two to arrive.
It so happened that the primary school opposite the church (just across the road) was having some sort of family day rehearsal. At least we thought that it was la, because it was playing over the Public Announcements (P.A.) system a very irritating song. A very, VERY irritating song. Basically it was on loop, playing over and over a 2 lines song, which goes like this:
"Happy, HAPPY family; Happy, HAPPY faMILEE,
We are HAPPY FAMILEEEEEEEEE...."
yes, it was a group song, sung by high-pitched children in this super forced spirit of gaiety. It was funny the first time we heard it. I've even lip-synced to the lyrics for a minute or two, much to the mirth of my friends.
But after hearing it for the 5th time, we started to get irritated by it. By the 10th, the song has seriously put us in doubt of our sanity. We started to ask "Who in their right mind, will play this diabolical song, to brighten up other people's day??" We seriously don't think the kids will enjoy it. Think though they may be young, kids are actually quite sharp and smart these days, and won't be convinced by the forced happy singing.
Then we wondered if the song was played to make the parents happy. That notion only lasted 3 seconds, before being shot down by us, to the background playing of the 17th repetition of the song. We figured no sane adults would seriously love this song, unless they're hardcore fans of Teletubbies or Barney the Dinosaur.** And if they produce kids who sing like the kids in the song, they should seriously consider family planning, and do humanity a service by not having kids...
And so we turn back to the age old favourite reason, when things turn bad in life^, of saying "It must be the gah-men's fault". Yea, must be some secret conspiracy by the government, if not why would the school play it? And all is well for that little while, as we rest in the comfortable shade of the tentage, blaming our national leaders for a stupid song. yes, it don't make sense, but it did make our wait a little better...
Finally our friends arrived^^. One of the newly arrived friends remarked, "eh, how come the song keep playng one har?" To which another friend said, "Allo, you only here for 2 minutes you complained lioa. We've been here for 15-20 minutes leh!!" Then I started to do the lip-syncing again, which caused us to break out in laughter... Ah, what a glorious Saturday morning.
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Oh, sorry to those who are expecting some serious blog-entry, from the serious-sounding title of this entry. I just wanna "crap" after posting up the last few serious entries. May this brighten up your day.
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*or was it the other way round? no matter ... :p
** Incidentally, why is Barney the Dinosaur always having this BIG grin? My friend prepositioned that because deep down in Barney's heart, he's always seeing the little kids around him as food. That's what makes him so happy...
^ to the 23rd repetition of ""Happy, HAPPY family; Happy, HAPPY faMILEE..."
^^ think the song hit the 38th repetition by then.
ah, overdue entry on the final night of keeping the deadman's watch...
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Intercession on behalf of the land
repentance from self-dependency, self-sufficiency.
Christians to arise to be intercessors and stand in the gap.
Daniel 9:3-19 (Prayer of Daniel)
3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,
5 we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.
6 "Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.
7 "Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.
8 "Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9 "To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;
10 nor have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets.
11 "Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.
12 "Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem.
13 "As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth.
14 "Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
15 "And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day--we have sinned, we have been wicked.
16 "O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us.
17 "So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary.
18 "O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.
19 "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name."
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Obadiah 1:1-4 Pride will lead to our downfall
Obadiah 1:5-6 Judgement of the Lord will come
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Psalm 30: 6-9 Pride of the Psalmist --> brought down to lowness by the Lord
Psalm 30: 10-12 Repentance!
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Forgiveness for the arrogance of the heart, for the mis-using of Your gifts to further our own gains rather than Your kingdom's purpose.
Realign Singapore into Your scheme & let Singapore be a banner in Your kingdom, be a blessing to other nations in Your will.
Pray for the youths, pray for the families
Pray against the spirit of money-worship
Pray for the churches of Singapore
Intercession for the lost - stand in the gap between the living and the dead!
Romans 15: 1-2, 5-6 (NASB)
1Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.
2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.
5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,
6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer for one another.
Prayer for the church, prayer for the harvest.
We choose to believe, and we believe, not because we chose it, but because You chose us to choose, and You showed yourself so real to us that it no longer becomes a choice in choosing You. But it is real to choose You.
Believe in God's sovereign plan to restore, that He is willing to restore, can restore and will restore!
2 Chronicles 22: 10 - 11 (NASB)
10 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.
11 But Jehoshabeath the king's daughter took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons who were being put to death, and placed him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah so that she would not put him to death.
Restoration in 2 Chronicles 24:1-4
1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zibiah from Beersheba.
2 Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3 Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
4 Now it came about after this that Joash decided to restore the house of the LORD.
7 years of waiting, before the baby can become king. Trust in the Lord, even when He doesn't seems to answer our prayers immediately.
Ezekiel 44:1-3 (NASB)
1Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut.
2The LORD said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.
3"As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and shall go out by the same way."
- God is a Holy Being. The Holiness of God - too marvelous to behold! Before Jesus came, His mark is so special and significant that no man may use anything dedicated to God.
Ezekiel 44:4-8 (NASB)
4 Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD, and I fell on my face.
5 The LORD said to me, "Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the LORD and concerning all its laws; and mark well the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary.
6 "You shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel,
7 when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood; for they made My covenant void--this in addition to all your abominations.
8 "And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners to keep charge of My sanctuary."
Keep our ways holy, do not make His covenant void!
Ezekiel 44:9-14 (NASB)
9 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary.
10 "But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.
11 "Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.
12 "Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn against them," declares the Lord GOD, "that they shall bear the punishment for their iniquity.
13 "And they shall not come near to Me to serve as a priest to Me, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed.
14 "Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.
Not just our ways are to be holy, but our very beings are to be made holy in Him. All of us can be ministers, but it does not mean we are automatically aligned with God because of our service. Therefore, watch our ways and ourselves!
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Prayer-walked the church grounds, seeking God's presence, grace and protection on the ministries that uses the building and its facilities.
Jeremy Riddle - Sweetly Broken
From the album Sweetly Broken
To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing
For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just
Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered
What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified
You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled
Chorus:
In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness
(2x’s)
Chorus:
Mark 12:30 - 31
"AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'
"The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
the 2 Greatest Commandments - Love God, love others!
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John 17:23 - Perfect Love
I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
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1 Peter 4:7-8
The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
United in prayers! in love for one another!
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John 13:35
"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
--> Jesus' name be lifted high in the world because of our love for one another.
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Ezekiel 8, Ezekiel 34
Godlessness and idol worshipping has crept into the church through the leadership of the church.
- Pray for forgiveness, pray for repentance, pray for return to the Lord (Jeremiah 4
:1-2)
- Prayed through Psalm 24 - need for clean hands, pure hearts
"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (John 4:7-10)
John 15:5 Jesus is the vine, draw life from the vine
Psalm 1
Hosea 6:1-3
"Come, let us return to the LORD
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
"He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
"So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth."
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Song: All We like Sheep
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1 King 18:41-46
Now Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower."
So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees.
He said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up and looked and said, "There is nothing." And he said, "Go back" seven times.
It came about at the seventh time, that he said, "Behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming up from the sea." And he said, "Go up, say to Ahab, 'Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you.'"
In a little while the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.
James 5:16, Psalm 66:18, Isaiah 1:14-20, Isaiah 59-1-7, Heb 11:1, Heb 5:7
Pray prophetically, passionately, proactively, persistently.
Genesis 25:21
The episode of Rebekah's barreness pondered - Why did God allow Rebekah, a woman chosen by God to carry on the Abrahamic covenant/lineage, to be barren for a time?
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Ministered to one another in prayers and encouragements.
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And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.
And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
"Great and marvelous are Your works,
O Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the nations!
"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU,
FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED."
- Revelation 15:2-4 (New American Standard Bible)
Takeaway: The Church will be victorious, singing praises to the Almighty.
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Genesis 39 - the episode of Joseph being carried away to Egypt, and all that happened to him.
Takeaway: Even when bad things happen, the hand of the Lord is upon those He wills it.
Luke 15:18-24
The Father's Heart
1. He is ever waiting for us.
2. He sees us, whether from a distance or in our innermost being.
3. He feels compassion for us.
4. He runs to us.
5. He is ever willing to bless, even when we haven't fully confessed our sins.
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Hebrews 4:15 (NASB)
For we do not have a hight priest who cannot sympathise with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
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Jeremiah 4:1-3 (NASB)
Response: Return to the Lord!
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Prayed for the Church, church leaders & families in Singapore.
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Beware of backsliding in the heart!
I come on my knees
To lay down before you
Bringing all that I am
Longing only to know you
Seeking your face
And not only your hand
I find you embracing me
Just as I am
And I lift these songs
To you and you alone
As I sing to you
In my praises make your home
To my audience of one
You are Father, and you are Son
As your spirit flows free,
Let it find within me
A heart that beats to praise you.
And now just to know you more
Has become my great reward
To see your kingdom come
And your will be done
I only desire to be yours,
Lord
So what could I bring
To honor your majesty
What song could I sing
That would move the heart of royalty
And all that I have
Is the life that Yor've given me
So Lord let me live for you
My song with humility
And Lord as the love song
Of my life is played
I have one desire
To bring glory to your name
To my audience of one
You are Father, and you are Son
As your spirit flows free,
Let it find within me
A heart that beats to praise you.
And now just to know you more
Has become my great reward
To see your kingdom come
And your will be done
I only desire to be yours,
Lord
And we lift these songs
To you and you alone
As we sing to you
In our praises make your home
To my audience of one
You are Father, and you are Son
As your spirit flows free,
Let it find within me
A heart that beats to praise you.
And now just to know you more
Has become my great reward
To see your kingdom come
And your will be done
I only desire to be yours,
Lord
(taken from http://www.lyricsdownload.com/big-daddy-weave-audience-of-one-lyrics.html)
Thank you, Jesus, for drawing me near. Even as I learn to remember again all the names You give to me, help me to pray for these people. Help me to pray for those who cannot pray. Amen.
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Malachi 1:11
Promise of God; Purity of offering
Malachi 3:2-3
God will send Jesus to cleanse His own and make us worthy sacrifices and offerings.
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Prayer through a song:
Father, I thank You
For all that You’ve done
You gave Your Son freely for me
And I praise You
For calling me
Drawing me near
Out of blindness
You caused me to see
Spirit of life
You are God’s holy fire
You’ve kindled my heart
With Your blaze
And I know You’re refining me
Changing my life
And by faith
You’re revealing Your ways
Jesus I need You
As Lord of my life
I give all I have unto You
Lord I want to come under
Your heavenly hand
And to praise you
In all that I do.
Caught up with my friend who just came back from a month working trip in Jogjakarta last night. He was there to help coordinate some relief work for the earthquake-hit area. Am glad to catch up after a month of absence - missed his ineffable humor and corny one-liners. :p He still looks a bit tired, because he was working yesterday. But other than that, he looks okay. Gave thanks that even though he had harrowing brushes with some mini-quakes, on the whole, he and his team was protected from physical harm.
Guess what struck me more during the sharing was his candid manner of describing the ways some Christians pissed him off. :D I guess it's inevitable, even though one might be doing relief work, one can still carries bad habits from the working world and make life more miserable for the team. And I guess the Lord is making my friend learn more about growing patience and grace in his work (my friend's, not God's :D). Will continue to pray for my friend, even as he ploughs on in his work. haha, we all need prayers and encouragement in our daily work. So do pray and encourage someone today...
Found an interesting article about this "pathos of shakeness". Hope it shakes you up!
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Liturgy as a medicine against propaganda
ANDREW SHANKS is a Church of England priest in North Yorkshire and author of various books, including "What Is Truth?": Towards a Theological Poetics and God and Modernity.
The best liturgy, surely, is the enactment of the most radical public honesty.
But let's be quite precise about this. In common parlance the word "honesty" is often used as if it were a straightforward synonym for "sincerity"; or "frankness"; or both of those combined. And yet, it seems to me that radical honesty, properly understood, is something altogether more.
Thus, sincerity is truly meaning what you say. And frankness is truly saying all you mean. But "radical honesty" -- in the sense intended here -- is, by contrast, a matter of being truly open to what other people may have to say; especially those most different to oneself in temperament, cultural conditioning, or experience of life.
It's a virtue of the imagination: the capacity to enter, sympathetically, into another person's worldview; and, moreover, into their perhaps quite critical view of oneself. A fundamental readiness to take seriously the moral challenge of other perspectives -- not least, those which the prevailing consensus of one's own community is most immediately inclined to dismiss.
We all know that true faith is something more than right belief. Thomas Aquinas for instance distinguishes between "unformed" and "formed faith." Right belief alone is "unformed faith." To become salvific it needs to be "formed." -- By what? Aquinas answers, by "love." But in what sense, exactly? The trouble is, he fails to specify. And all too often it appears that the "love" in question is understood, merely, as a certain ideal fervor of frank sincerity. As though the formula for the truth of faith were just: to believe what's metaphysically correct -- and really to mean it, holding nothing back.
I think that this is much too weak a formulation!
Far rather, it seems to me, the truth of faith is nothing other than the most radical honesty, recognized as sacred. That's to say: it's the imperative of such honesty religiously appropriated, and so invested with maximum poetic power.
Jesus called this investiture "the reign of God." The basileia tou theou -- I think one might also translate it, simply, as "Honesty" with a capital H.
--
To be honest is amongst other things, when appropriate, to be penitent; but never in such a way as to promote the interests of mere conformity. Take, for example, the parable which Jesus tells about the two men who go up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee and the quisling tax-collector:
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get." But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:11-13)
We've no reason to doubt that what this Pharisee says is both true, and sincerely and frankly meant. Only Jesus condemns him because he lacks the sort of honesty which goes beyond frankness and sincerity. Of course the Pharisee also recites prayers of penitence; and let's be generous enough to suppose that he does so frankly and sincerely -- after all, why not? Yet this can only ever be the sort of penitence which reinforces group-conformity. Whereas the penitence of the tax-collector, which Jesus commends, is the opposite. It's, exactly, the penitence of true honesty: an opening up to the element of justice in other people's criticism of his way of life.
But now compare the typical behavior of the Christian church, considered as a corporate person. Which of these two figures does the church itself most resemble?
Consider our liturgical calendar. If one were maliciously inclined, one might well describe it as -- in essence -- a great annual round of occasions for corporate boasting. First, we have the core observances: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost; a structure for celebrating the church's glorious origins. Then, at least in some traditions, there's an overlayer of saints' days, to remember all that's best in church history down the centuries. And finally, in those churches most hospitable to the more conventional forms of civil religion, further festivals are added, for boasting about the congregation's national identity.
Our constantly reiterated prayers of penitence seem only to relate to our private sins. As a priest in the Church of England, after every congregational confession I rise to pronounce an absolution. I do so as an official representative of the church's corporate tradition; which in this transaction is therefore, entirely, the channel of grace to its sinful individual participants. The action would make no sense if the sins in question were those of the church as a corporate person -- for one can hardly absolve oneself. The sins we're invited to confess aren't those of collaboration and apathy, by which we're falsely bound into the community. But (I think it's fair to say) they're exclusively the sins which, as well as being an offense against our neighbors, also offend against the community's own corporate egoism.
How -- in general -- does a community, any community, develop a corporate conscience? Partly, it's by celebrating examples of good practice. But it must surely also involve the community's learning, in all honesty, truly to own the shadow side of its own history: working through the memory of corporate moral failure and seeking to understand it. The church, however, can scarcely be said to devote much liturgical time to this latter task. Indeed, the sad fact is, we never have.
Why not? Above all, I think, it's because the church originally evolved as a social organism designed to survive persecution; and a community of that sort is necessarily far more concerned with defensive unity than with honesty. Boasting helps unite such a community, and reinforce its morale. Honest self-criticism is a luxury it can't afford. The church has never yet fully recovered from the trauma of its abused childhood; the abuse occurred at so decisive a formative period of its development. And then the abused child grew up to be an abuser, in turn. First, the boasting which was originally a justifiable defiance of the persecuting outsider slipped over into a general attitude of closure towards all outsiders. This is already observable in the New Testament, especially the fourth gospel. And then, when the church became a persecutor itself, the crueler it was the more obsessively it identified itself with its remembered martyrs, to soothe its conscience. But even when the constraints of secularity prevent the church from persecuting, our background addiction to boasting still remains. It has become second nature.
And so, how might healing be possible here? In short, what's surely needed is a local situation in which churches no longer face any danger of persecution, yet in which they've also very largely lost their old cultural hegemony. Time's needed, too. And plenty of it. But then at least a potential space may begin to open up, for the Honesty preached by Jesus to re-emerge -- as it were, from under the old concealment of the church's boastfulness.
More and more, though, such spaces are in fact now opening up; as never before. And so the question becomes: what would it require for the resultant opportunity actually to be seized? In my view, we need major calendar reform.
The liturgical tradition of ancient Israel developed, at least in part, as an attempt to appropriate the unprecedented critical challenge of the God who appears in Amos 5:21-24, Hosea 6:6, Isaiah 1:10-17, Micah 6:6-8. For this is a God who can't be flattered and manipulated, but who positively rejects any worship not infused with a genuine yearning for "justice." By which is meant, precisely, an infinite commitment, on the part of the worshipping community as a whole, to moral self-critique. The Day of Atonement became the key festival in this regard. And I'd argue that we need to work at developing some sort of Christian equivalent.
It might take a very different form from the Jewish festival. Moreover, I think it would ideally need to be incorporated into a whole series of other more specific commemorative observances; which would be different in each society, as each has its own particular unresolved traumas to be probed. But the basic purpose would be, so far as possible, to reconnect with the prophetic tradition out of which Jesus himself originally came; and thereby, quite explicitly, to represent the Honesty he stood for, in all its intrinsic opposition to church ideology as such.
I think we need new observances for this purpose; with a view to also, then, transforming the old ones. For, so far as I can see, the old habits of church ideology are just too well ensconced in the traditional calendar to be shifted any other way.
--
Of course, it would be nice to be part of a community which one might feel was historically innocent of sin. But unfortunately, I think, this niceness is in a sense rather like the niceness of sin itself: it's an attraction from which we need to be released.
And, therefore, I'm happy to belong to the Church of England -- not least, because it's a church of which it's really very hard to feel proud.
Emerging out of a great act of vandalism, the destruction and pillage of the monasteries; designed, very much, to be a compliant instrument of oppressive governmental power; a great land-owning church, always in league with our fellow landlords; constantly struggling to repress Roman Catholics, on the one hand, and Nonconformists, on the other, until at last (thank God) we were defeated -- quite rightly, no one any longer admires the sort of church we used to be. It's clear that we have a special vocation: to be a pioneeringly honest ex-oppressor church.
If I'd been born, or if by some lucky chance I'd become a Quaker -- for instance -- then indeed I might feel some legitimate pride in my community's tradition. But, insofar as any possibility of redemption remains, it seems to me that religious communities are to be loved, not because they're historically good, but just because they're there. And, as regards liturgy, the great challenge today is surely to develop new forms of expression for that sort of love.
In the same way: although I wholeheartedly agree with those feminists who criticize the patriarchal quality of traditional liturgy -- so much so that, if there were ever any justification for "walking out" as a prophetic act, then I accept that this would be it -- nevertheless, I also agree with Angela West, who, in her book Deadly Innocence, repudiates that option on the grounds that after all it renders prophecy too easy; and that it allows the proper challenge behind the protest to be too easily evaded by those left behind.
And likewise: this would be my basic response to Nietzsche, as well. It's true, no one has confronted the dishonesty of traditional church ideology more penetratingly, or more subversively, than Nietzsche. Yet the honesty which he envisages remains, exclusively, that of an isolated individual free spirit. In the end, Nietzsche simply ducks the problem of public honesty altogether. For it's as though he's saying, "If I can't have an innocent community -- innocent of dishonesty -- I choose to have none." In that sense, he too is seduced by the chimera of innocence.
Liturgy as an ideal enactment of public honesty would be an open acknowledgement, and working through, of the reality of corporate sin. But, note, this is by no means to be confused with the manipulative cultivation of collective guilt-feelings. For who is it that feels guilty, in the way which invites manipulation? It's precisely someone who wants to feel innocent, yet is frustrated. And, inasmuch as the sort of liturgy I dream of would be premised on a basic repudiation of that craving, its governing purpose would actually be the very opposite of manipulative. Thus, it would at least seek to be the absolute antithesis to kitsch; entirely, a medicine against propaganda. Or, in other words: a sober, systematic discipline of learning to face up to things. A disciplined process of facing up to everything which, in Nietzsche's brutal terminology, the "human herd-animal" within us least knows how to face.
--
Such liturgy would be all about reconnecting with what is in fact also the earliest, pre-schismatic, and most profoundly valid impulse underlying the Protestant Reformation. I mean the impulse which comes to classic expression in Martin Luther's Theses for the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518.Thus Luther begins here with a series of propositions, in effect paradoxically elaborating on the warning in Jesus' parable, cited above; as well as echoing Paul on the Torah, and turning Paul's argument against the post-Pauline church. The first thesis sets the theme:
The law of God, although the soundest doctrine of life, is not able to bring man to righteousness but rather stands in the way.
It "stands in the way," inasmuch as the good works it prescribes, when rewarded with praise from the worshipping community, tend, almost inevitably, to divert one into boastful collusion with the corporate boastfulness of that community. For which reason, as it says in Thesis 7:
The works of righteous people would be deadly, if they were not feared to be deadly by those righteous people themselves in devout anxiety before God.
What's needed, according to this argument, is a "devout anxiety," accompanied by an absolute renunciation of any claim to be credited with the good that one does; attributing all, instead, to God's free gift of grace.
And then, on that basis, Luther goes on to distinguish between two polar opposite modes of theology:
The "theologian of glory" calls the bad good and the good bad. The "theologian of the cross" says what a thing is. (Thesis 21)
The former upholds the general worldview of officially licensed religious kitsch, whilst dismissing the "devout anxiety" which inspires the "theology of the cross," as if it were nothing but a traitorous lack of trust in the boastful community.
If only Luther had, himself, in the truest sense held fast to this distinction! But the trouble is, in his later schismatic polemic it's systematically obscured. For the meaning of his basic slogan "faith alone" mutates. Whereas at the beginning his evident concern is to set faith apart from any and every form of corporate boastfulness, increasingly later on the setting-apart is only from one form. Namely: that form which is bound up with the particular set of church practices he now repudiates as being "unscriptural." The reformed church develops a theology implicitly puffed up with its own glory, as contrasted to inglorious Rome. And so the original, primitive moment of universal truth, flickeringly there at Heidelberg, fades away into partisan bitterness.
"Theology of glory" / "theology of the cross": the opposition between these two is surely just the Christian version of a fundamental distinction applicable, trans-confessionally, to all sorts of liturgical tradition. Where Luther's thought shrinks into polemical narrowness, we need on the contrary to be expansive. In trans-confessional terms, the underlying difference between the two "theologies" is essentially a difference between two opposed prevailing qualities of pathos. Elsewhere, I've proposed that we term them "pathos of glory" and "pathos of shakenness."
By "pathos of glory" I simply mean: any sort of emotive persuasion tending to glorify the dishonest corporate egoism of a community; its self-projective hero-worship, and unthinking reverence for authority; its conventional moral prejudices. Whereas, the "pathos of shakenness" is the aesthetic antithesis to this.
At its purest and most articulate, the "pathos of shakenness" is what one encounters in certain works of anguished poetry: the products of the most solitary inner exile. One finds it raging, primevally, in the poetry of the prophet Amos; or again for instance in William Blake. It's there, also, in the jagged melancholy of Friedrich Hölderlin. Or Nelly Sachs. (To cite only the examples that I myself am most intrigued by.)
And what I'm proposing is a new approach to liturgy, reconceived as an art the whole essential aim of which would be to try and mediate at least something of the intrinsic truthfulness of such solitude, in the most participative manner possible, to society as a whole.
(Taken from http://www.crosscurrents.org/shanks.htm )
Just switched on the laptop 1/2 hour ago. Decided to listen to K-love. Great songs to start off the day!
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Avalon - Testify To Love
From the album A Maze of Grace
All the colors of the rainbow
All the voices of the wind
Every dream that reaches out
That reaches out to find where love begins
Every word of every story
Every star in every sky
Every corner of creation lives to testify
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
I'll be a witness in the silences
When words are not enough
With every breath I take
I will give thanks to God above
For as long as I shall live
I will testify to love
From the mountains to the valleys
From the rivers to the sea
Every hand that reaches out
Every hand that reaches out to offer peace
Every simple act of mercy
Every step to kingdom come
All the hope in every heart will
Speak what love has done
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Casting Crowns - Praise You In This Storm
From the album Lifesong
I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say “Amen”, and it’s still raining
As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away
Chorus:
I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can’t find You
As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away
Chorus:
(2x’s)
I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The maker of Heaven and Earth
Chorus:
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Todd Agnew - This Fragile Breath
From the album Grace Like Rain
I searched the world for a song that I could sing
Praise to my King A gift that I could bring
But no music I found could compare to you
Not one could do Justice to your glory
What are my songs compared to yours
You speak with thunder and lightning
Your voice shakes the mountains
The foundations of the earth
All I can offer is this fragile breath
With each one I'll praise You
With each one I'll praise You more
I searched the world for a poem I could read
A rhyme that would bring Glory to my King
But no writing I found was worthy of
This God high above All other gods
What are my words compared to yours
Chorus
Speak to me, speak to me please
Won't You speak to me
Chorus
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Books |
| Genre: | Biographies & Memoirs |
| Author: | Hirotada Ototake |
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Books |
| Genre: | Religion & Spirituality |
| Author: | Andrew Shanks |
Just looked at myself in the mirror the other day. Man, love-handles sticking out like handle bars. Really gross. Spurred me on to go jogging just now. Man, am really outta shape. Only jogged from 25+ mins from my under HDB flat to Admiralty MRT station. Figure it to be less than 2 "click" (kilometres). ARGH! Guess flat-footed people really cannot run. well, that's my usual excuse la. I prefer swimming to running, so given a choice, I'll swim rather than walk.
After running to Admiralty, I really cannot stand it. Decided to walk all the way home. Took the long route actually, go past the church building site. They are laying the foundations, as can see a few huge granite blocks onsite. Then walked further up and went past the Singapore Sports School. Saw a "chio bu"** as I walked past a primary school, brightened up my warm down*.
In the end, I took 1 hour to walk back to home. This is not good...
*yes, it doesn't take a lot to make me contented... :p
** Amazing! there's actually a Wiki entry for "chio bu"! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiobu
Went out with a friend to have dinner with him. Well, more of I watched him have dinner, as my mom insist on me having dinner with her beforehand at home. Had a good 3 hours of talk and drink with him, as it's been quite a while since I caught up with this dear friend.
One of the things that came up was about my jobless state for the past 11 months. My friend is totally amazed that I can stand not doing work for such a lengthy period of time. Truth be told, I'm also amazed that I can stand the length of time at not being employed. Brings back to my mind on a conversation I had a few days back with some friends, on what are the greatest bane to people my age these days: singlehood and lack of employment.
As we talked, I sensed that my friend has really got caught up in his lifestyle of work. In a sense, I felt he had to keep on working so as to keep providing his needs. Words like "personal wealth", "spending habits of the poor, the middle class and the rich" came up a lot. I heard him talk about providing for his parents, and clearing all the debts and stuff. Somehow, just sense a bit of weariness as he talked about it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing him for working hard. In fact, I should take notes from him on all the sound financial advice and work ethics that he gave last night. But at the same time, a phrase my pastor used in sermon on sunday came back to mind. "Beware the barrenness of a busy life!" I think my friend did suffered a bit from work-fatigue. Am glad he talked about him taking a break in April with his family. Think he really enjoyed that time of short break away from work, even though he admits going with a holiday with your parents ain't the most relaxing thing to do! 
Just want to encourage those who feels overstretched in life: Seek your rest in God.
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1 My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
3 How long will you assault a man?
Would all of you throw him down—
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
4 They fully intend to topple him
from his lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.
Selah
5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God [a] ;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.
Selah
9 Lowborn men are but a breath,
the highborn are but a lie;
if weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
together they are only a breath.
10 Do not trust in extortion
or take pride in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.
11 One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,
12 and that you, O Lord, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
according to what he has done.
Taken from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=62&version=31&context=chapter
