Weekends, Routines?

Routine, my friend, no matter how i dread you, you seem to follow me everywhere, every time.

Hah. Ever since i'm required to stay in, my weekends have turned into routines that go over and over again. Kinda dread it sometimes but then again, it's not all that bad, it provides comfort and security, sometimes too much i reckoned. I guess the really bad point about routines is that there are times or events that seems really important but are still overshadowed by routines. Like meeting a friend for example. You see, I'm a self-confessed socially passive person and when it comes to friendships, i'm stumped but i guess i'm learning and breaking outta my shell. i try to.

So a typical saturday will go like, wake up, breakfast, guitar, lunch, bail out of house by 12 or 2 depending on whether there's practice or not, youth service, fellowship, home sweet home, reading/thinking/devotions then boom(!) before you know it, it's bed time. And Sunday's pretty much the same cept that church is in the morning and then it's booook in time.

Church, tho a big chunk of my precious weekend should never be compromised, i guess i gotta learn to let go of some guitar time and maybe a bit of fellowship here and there to accommodate other stuffs, like FAMILY. Sigh, i think i'm quite a disappointment to my parents :/ Hope they'll one day understand.

Conscience.

"The conscience . . . is proof that communion with God has been broken, that there is a gap between God and us, between his law and our state. . . . The human conscience is the subjective proof of humanity’s fall, a witness to human guilt before the face of God."-Herman Bavinck

New Calvinism.

I need to get my hands on some books regarding new calvinism.

The E Challenge!

Sermon today was about evangelism and during the sermon, the guest speaker shared about his experience evangelizing to a complete stranger on a train just before service today. I thought to myself, "oh wow, he's got real lots of guts man." Part of me was full of admiration for him and part of me felt really excited. It's like something exploded within me and i felt really challenged to do something crazy for God. So out came,

THE E CHALLENGE! (E for evangelism of course)

I wenta get those dandy little cards that has some cool verses on it illustrated in really awesome art and passed it round. We're to handwrite some encouraging or thought provoking messages and leave our name and contact on the card. With this, we're to either give it to a friend or a complete stranger within the week and share about the experience during life group next week.

Turns out, it became one of my most memorable and FUN evangelism experience ever! Hahahahaha cant wait to share it with the rest man, i hope others will find joy in doing this too. And who knows? All this might work up to something beautiful! :]

Mark Driscoll: Church is Not a Restaurant - Joshua Harris

Good stuff!

Grace and Action? (Part 1)

Finally had time to meet up with my buddy @ NTU last night. Was a pretty long drive, plus i drove the wrong way home ( i almost hit Tuas checkpoint 0.0, yes i'm bad with directions, and yes i'm a guy) but it was well worth it. I've always liked his company, we could talk about God so freely and share each other's vulnerabilities, thoughts and aspirations, not forgetting the nonsense and lame things both of us are so full of. Sam if you're reading this, i thank God for you and this brotherhooooood man.

Anyway we were discussing why the Christian life seems so hard to live and why it sometimes seem so full of things to do, change and look out for, even when Christ had already died to set us free. It's like there's still work to be done. Why is that so? Does grace transform us magically or are there actions we must take (like breaking habits and devising battle plans to overcome temptations, etc). Ha, i guess it's kinda hard to reach a conclusion on a topic like that without the bible in hand so we kinda moved on to other stuff.

So now with access to a bible and some time, i guess i wanna check it out.

We often tend to forget or might not know that there are different stages to a Christian life. There is the Justification, where we are made right before God by the atoning work of Jesus on the cross. In this stage, there is absolutely nothing we can do as said in Ephesians 2:8, our whole salvation is a gift from God.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Eph 2:8 (NASB)

This eliminates all boasting in ourselves and focuses our minds on how good God is. And isn't it such a relieve? That we didn't have to try to be good first before coming to Him? I guess that's what makes the Gospel so beautiful, that there is a God who really came to save sinners like you and me despite the state we were in.

But what happens half-past redemption?

to be continued...

coram Deo

“The big idea of the Christian life is coram Deo. Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.” -R.C Sproul