OH WHAT A BEAUTY.

Sometimes...

Sometimes.... just sometimes, you would just want to jam with Taylor Swift's songs. <3 hahahaha.

Okay, Guess that Wasn't So Bad.

And i thought i'd be really sad when the latest batch of OCTs got commissioned. Oh yea, could've been there at the parade square with my parents pinning up that bar on my shoulders but guess it's not meant to be. Well it's not as if i've not been thru this feeling of regret, it's just that ever since the previous one, i thought i'm all braced up for this one.

I guess God dealt with my heart that night as i drown myself with "might-have-beens". It's quite an ordeal but hey, isn't life all about that? (Especially for people who reflect a lot.) Shattered dreams, longings of the heart denied, having hope dangle on a string, it's what makes life kinda interesting and worth thinking about. But we all got to learn how to pick up the pieces and move on don't we? And there's no greater joy than to move on with Someone who cares and comfort you in times like that.

Yea, He sure gives and takes away but He will also never fail to make everything beautiful in His time.

"The infathomable sadness of the "might have been!" God never opens doors that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there are doors which we have shut, doors which need never have been shut, imaginations which need never have been sullied. Never be afraid when God brings back the past. Let memory have its way. It is a minister of God with its rebuke and chastisement and sorrow. God will turn the "might have been" into a wonderful culture for the future" - Oswald Chambles (in, My Utmost for His Highest)

Commitment.

Is God Concerned? (Jonah 1:6)

"So the captain approached him and said, "how is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish"" -Jonah 1:6

God had done as He pleased to bring to past the fulfillment of His will. But at what expense will He put the people to? Is He concerned about the sailors onboard the ship?

The whole book of Jonah is about aliens (lol.) and pagans coming to know and fear the Lord. It has a missional theme about it, so yes, God is in fact, very concerned, about the sailors. The ship that did not sink remains the evidence of God's kindness and on top of that, through Jonah's confession, they even came to fear the Lord! (v.16)

Now, can other people around us be affected during our times of disobedience or chastening? I certainly think so! The question is, do we dare confess our wrongs and disobedience to people? (I'm not trying to say that we should confess all our sins and whatsoever to them but only those that affect them directly.)

Poem for the Singles.

For all the singles out there:

caught it on:

http://theresurgence.com/2011/04/06/a-poem-for-all-single-people-pass-it-on

God is With Us Now.

Favorite praise song ever.

Sleeping in the Midst of a Storm (Jonah 1:5)

"... But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep." -Jonah 1:5

Before Jesus slept on a boat in the midst of a storm, there was Jonah sleeping soundly on a ship in a storm that is threatening to tear it up. Now, who can accomplish such feats? He must either know the master of the storm or he must be a really sleepy man.

Jonah knew who was behind the storm (v9), he knew who was it intended for and most importantly, he knew what was its intent. He shew no fear at all because though all these were directed at him, he knew God is in control and he knows his God.

Does such assuring knowledge of who God is remain a constant in my heart? Can such knowledge calm my timid soul in times of trials? Or will i jump to conclusions that the Lord is now against me?

Lord of the Seas? (Jonah 1:4)

"The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea so that the ship was about to break up" -Jonah 1:4

The Lord holds infinite power in His hands. He shapes lands, gave breath to life, created all things. Throughout history in the Bible, it seems that God always has a thing for winds and waters. He made the winds blew so hard so as to create a path thru the Red Sea for His people to escape Pharaoh and then once more in a river so that His Ark of the Covenant may cross. Yet this time, the winds blew in peril, against one who is disobedient. Did God really have to go that far?

To think that God is a ruthless slave-driver would probably equate to sin. To marvel at His great insight and foreknowledge is quite another thing. God knows the extent of His power and so He employs to a uttermost perfection, a wind, that almost, just almost, break the ship up. He knows what it would take to bring a erring child of God back to the right way, being, the fulfillment of His will. And He will move heaven and earth (idiom here, not literally.) to achieve this. What a glorious thought!

Disobedience and a Tad Bit of Silliness. (Jonah 1:3)

"But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD" Jonah 1:3

The Word came to Jonah but instead of rising up to fulfill the Word, he rose up to flee. I wonder what is the motivation of Jonah's disobedience. Is it out of a fear in a certain inadequacy? Is it out of habit? A habit which had cultivated itself thru times of disobedience? Whatever it is, disobedience can only beget disobedience because our heart will just get hardened over and over again.

What makes Jonah think that he is able to flee from the LORD? Yet aren't we all like that? Adam and Eve tried it, David had certainly gone thru it before, if not how could he come out with a psalm like psalm 138? He says,

"Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there." Psa 138:7-8

So, are we still trying to flee?