Living in Christ

I feel that while you have a compassionate heart for the world at large, you are often very harsh on the people around you. Maybe you need to temper that and not be so quick to judge. There's always a reason why people do certain things, but it may not be the way you view it. You mustn't assume.

The words above came in an sms message to me from a very dear friend, following my handling of a personal issue involving my brother. These words led me to think that everyone has his blind spots, and that everyone wants everybody else, and the entire world, to be what he wants them to be. (Maybe not everyone but I certainly do).

I am very much guilty of that. I am often rigid in my views and hold high expectations of myself and others. Everything to me is black and white, right and wrong, straight and crooked, holy and unholy, true and false, as well as honest and dishonest.

I assume that a person will strive to do his best, that he will uphold high ethical and moral standards, and that if he is dealing with a grey area, his decision will be definitely an ethical one. For those into personality profile tests, this means that I score highly on the ethical and justice aspects. As for compassion, the poor and the underprivileged, especially children, hold a very special and big place in my heart. I firmly believe in transparency and openness; I passionately disdain duplicity and opaqueness.

The painful truth: I found out that the world does not function this way, and that most of the time, one lives in greyness. How do I live in Christ when I am living in greyness? This has been one of my biggest struggles of my Christian walk.

The world rewards strength; Christ honours weakness. The world craves ambition; Christ desires humility. The world seeks success stories; Christ pursues the downtrodden. The world dismisses consequences; Christ rejects wantonness. The world hoards wealth; Christ gathers souls. The world celebrates life present; Christ extols life everlasting.

The Bible bears a stern warning about the world:

1 John 2:15-17

Do Not Love the World

15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.


The bigger shock? That some of my life principles have shaped me into a person who is highly ethical, righteous and generally compassionate but who sadly hasn't really grasped the Christian value of mercy. And that sometimes, my words and actions do make me seem like a modern-day Pharisee. I have to learn to be more accepting of those who are very different from me in the way they act, the way they think, the way they speak, the way they judge, the way they love, the way they empathise and so on.

I still do need to kick myself once in a while just to remind myself that we do good works and we are to be holy in a grateful and heartfelt response to our salvation, not to chalk up brownie points to earn our salvation. And that there is no condemnation in Christ and that I shouldn't be too hard on myself and sweat the small stuff.

I thank God that He is working in me to shape me into His image. So forgive me because I'm still a work in progress in His hands.

My constant source of comfort through my Christian walk has been the truth that Christ is always with me now and till eternity. He has also given me the Holy Spirit, my Comforter and my Counsellor.

I wish I could say that my faith is rock-solid, but I do succumb to self-doubt and worries of the world. And often, the spiritual journey feels like a long-drawn "three steps forward and two steps back" slow dance.

Thank God that He loves me and He has saved me by His grace. That I do not have to strive and struggle in my works to earn salvation because He has done it all at the Cross of Calvary. And that He has accepted me, warts and all, a wretched sinner. Amen.

His crucifixion and His resurrection means that whoever believes in him as Lord and Saviour will enjoy everlasting life because Christ has fully paid the price for all of our wrongdoings and sins, and fully redeemed us from the wages of sin, which is death, and given us entry into His eternal kingdom.

The world around us

Do Christians care enough about the world around us?


Faith is not enough
Jonathan Steele visits the Lagos nightclub where Médecins Sans Frontières is on the frontline in the fight against HIV and Aids. With photographs by David Levene.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,16876,1667357,00.html


'HIV is like marriage - it's for life'
Amid a fragile peace, MSF is vital in tackling a growing epidemic, reports Jonathan Steele. Photographs by David Levene.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,16876,1670766,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/christmasappeal2005/story/0,16796,1666944,00.html


Africa's world of forced labour - through the eyes of a six-year-old
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/10/28/world/20061029_GHANA_FEATURE.html


Baghdad's survivors
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/07/23/weekinreview/20060709_IRAQ_FEATURE.html


Wake Up!
Vukani means "Wake up!" and represents a cry for help. The people who live in the squatter camp of Vukani near Grahamstown, South Africa, struggle daily in small homes that do not have electricity or clean water.
http://www.washingtonpost.com /wp-srv/world/interactives/southafrica/index.html


A decade of democracy...after apartheid
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/04/25/international/20040425_SAFRICA_FEATURE.html


Brazil's favelas
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/samba.aspx


Land and Identity
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/land.aspx


Evacuation from Gaza, August 2005
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/evacuation.aspx


Crossing the US-Mexico border
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/crossings.aspx


Special thanks to CY, who forwarded me the links, giving me the final push to set up this blog. *smile*

Grace in action

Yesterday was an exciting day because I caught a glimpse of grace in action.

I took a cab after work around 2am and I was having a pretty decent conversation with the very nice cab driver who also lived in Bukit Panjang. Along the BKE stretch, he suddenly told me that there was a guy walking along the side of the expressway. I told him to slow down and check if the guy needed a lift anywhere because it was such a dangerous thing to be walking beside an expressway.

The cab driver was very savvy. He said he would lock the doors and asked me to wind down only part of the window to talk to the guy, who turned out to be a teenager. The teenager said he was walking home after work. Both of us were stunned and we asked him where he lived. He said Bukit Panjang. So I told him to hop into the front seat.

He told us that he had walked from Clark Quay and that he had been walking for about an hour and 45 minutes. He said he underestimated the distance it took him to walk from Clark Quay to Bukit Panjang. My goodness.

He was pretty quiet after he got into the cab. So we let him be, and the cab driver and I continued talking. As we neared Bukit Panjang, the cab driver asked the teenager where he stayed and he said: Jelepang Road. So I asked the cab driver to drop the teenager off first. The teenager even offered me some money for the cab ride but I told him that I could afford it.

Then I told him that the biggest lesson for him was that he shouldn't risk his life by doing such a stupid thing because it's late at night and drivers usually drive very fast, especially if they're a little tipsy, and he could easily be hit. The cab driver, on the other hand, started off by telling the teenager that if he ever wanted to walk along the expressway again, he must wear a reflective coat so that drivers can see him, and he then gently told him not to do it again because it was a very dangerous thing.

I felt quite ashamed after that because I thought that the cab driver handled the teenager better than I did, by not scolding him in harsh terms but rather subtly telling him that he shouldn't do it again. To me, the cab driver knew much more about "grace" than I did under that situation. My horrendous first instinct was to scold first and tell the teenager harshly about the negative consequences. :-P

This episode was very humbling for me.

Be holy because I am holy

Gay sex and drugs - not the type of stuff you would associate with a senior pastor of a 14,000-member church in Colorado Springs and a top official in the National Association of Evangelicals in the US. This episode also points to a biblical truth:

A Lamp on a Stand

16"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

I've read quite a lot of articles on this, but this is the link that interested me the most because it highlighted the issue of ethical decision-making in newsrooms.

This is the link to to the Poynter Institute Online website article: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=67

I brought it up not to cast judgment on or throw stones at Ted Haggard but more as a cautionary tale of how sometimes we foolishly and arrogantly think that we can proclaim our belief in God and yet act in ways that show up our hypocrisy. And that sometimes this is very evident to people, especially non-believers, around us --- our family members, our friends, our colleagues and so on. Sigh...goodness knows how many people I've turned away from Christ because of my words, my actions and my behaviour. :-P God, forgive me. Phew!

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Finally, the verses below are what I've been led to end this with. I hope that they will be an exhortation to us to be holy because He is holy, and because our salvation was bought not with perishable things, but with the precious blood of Christ. Amen!

1 Peter 1:13-25 (New International Version)

Be Holy

13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."^[a]

17Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.^[b] 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25but the word of the Lord stands forever."^[c] And this is the word that was preached to you.

There is no other name

A recent sermon prompted me to look up the name of Jesus, and what it represents. May these few verses below edify us and give us strength and courage when we can't seem to see beyond our circumstances and when all things appear hopeless. There is always hope because there is Christ. *smile*

Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the LORD saves.

In the name of Jesus, we are saved from our sins.

Matthew 1:21

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,^[a] because he will save his people from their sins."

In the name of Jesus, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38-39

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."

In the name of Jesus, there is deliverance, healing and miracles.

Mark 9:38-40

"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.

Acts 3:6-7
Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.

Acts 4:10
then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

Acts 16:17-18
This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.

In the name of Jesus, we have life everlasting.

John 20:30-31

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may^[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

In the name of Jesus, we are washed, justified, sanctified and called to be holy

1 Corinthians 1:2-3
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

When we gather in the name of Jesus, His Spirit is with us and His power is present.

1 Corinthians 5:4
When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,

At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord

Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Recommended read

Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life (By Eugene O'Kelly)

Words from the sleeve jacket of the book:

On May, 2005, Eugene O'Kelly stepped into his doctor's office with a full calendar and a lifetime of plans on his mind. Six days later, he would resign as CEO of KPMG. He was diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer and given three to six months to live.

His life before:

* Led a US$4 billion, 20,000-employee, century-plus-old partnership.

* Idea of a perfect day - face-to-face client meetings, meetings with staff, discussions with other KPMG partners, putting out fires and completing items on his electronic calendar.

* Had a full calendar over the next 18 months.

* Worked all the time, even during weekends.

* Missed every single school function for his younger daughter, Gina, 13.

* Rarely went on vacation with his wife during the first 10 years of his marriage.

* Squeezed in work-day lunches - twice- with his wife during the past decade.

His life after:

* Went to church that Sunday and the sermon was on Jesus and the Tax Collector. The reverend read, "For it is easier for a camel to enter through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."

* Stepped down as chairman and CEO of KPMG. Two days after, he had his first seizure, and started suffering major vision loss. His speech became garbled and he had problems getting dressed.

* Opted for radiotherapy, going for 20-minute sessions every day. This made him realise that proficiency/efficiency/competency was not what he could now measure people and things by. The machine would conk out. The staff were slow. The patients would moan. And that he (Type-A personality and micro-manager) needed to let go because he could no longer control everything.

* Was home every day with his wife, Corinne, and Gina. His older one is married with kids.

* Planned a final trip to Prague, Rome and Venice with his wife and Gina, with the departure set for Sept 16.

* Wrote down a list of the people whom he wanted to say goodbye to. It numbered 1,000. He couldn't "close" all the relationships. He closed half of that exclusively by mail. A number of them he did by phone. And he reserved his family and very close friends for the last few goodbyes. He wanted to ensure each closure would be a "Perfect Moment".

In a Perfect Moment, time came close to standing still. A Perfect Moment could be an intense five-minute phone conversation. It could be a leisurely, four-hour meal with good wine and great conversation. It could conceivably go on and on and on because it wasn't the bounded moment you created; it was the proper atmosphere in which it could blossom. The more I experienced Perfect Moments, the more I entertained the possibility of a Perfect Day, which was merely Perfect Moments strung together. In a perfect world, a Perfect Moment could last the duration of a waking day, maybe longer. Maybe the rest of one's life.

* Planned his funeral.

* Realised that unwinding relationships with close lifetime friends was easiest when his friends satisfied one or, more likely, both of these conditions: a belief in God, and a very solid marriage or partnership.

* Died on Sept 10.

I liked the book because he was very clear about how he felt about his death sentence, how he came to terms with it, and what he hoped to achieve in those 100 days. He said he was blessed because he was able to approach the end while still mentally lucid, and physically fit, with his loved ones near.

A lot of what he wrote got me thinking about my life, too. He said it took his impending death to make him realise that he had spent too much time with his "outer circles" - business contacts, colleagues and clients and friends, and too little time with his "inner circles" - his family and close friends.

As a result of reading this book, I've decided to change the way I spend my time - at work, and outside work. More time with my family and my closer friends, and less time with others. It's something that I am able to change now and therefore I should. I've also decided not to linger around in the office after work is done, but rather to pack up and leave and chill out instead at home and guard my free time more jealously. Of course, time with God is paramount. Plus, I will also actively create or look out for those Perfect Moments in my life from now on, and write them down in my prayer journal so that I will be reminded daily of God's providence because He alone decides our coming and our going. Amen to that!

I will sing of my Redeemer

First, I just want to recommend two CDs (both collections of hymns) that I listen to during the dead of the night nowadays and at times when I have had enough of the "live worship" CDs:

- Be Still My Soul (Selah - a trio of Todd Smith, Nicol Smith and Allan Hall)

- Hymns of Worship (Fernando Ortega)

For me, there's something about hymns that the praise and worship songs have never quite been able to replace. Maybe it's because many of the hymns are borne out of suffering and hardship, and ultimately testify of our Saviour's grace and the hymn-writers' faith. They are also simple, beautiful and touching.

Interestingly, the first song on both CDs is Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour.

The sleeve notes for Selah's CD include this extract:

My brother Todd and I spent a good deal of our growing years (1978-1986) in Zaire (in Africa), where our parents are missionaries. "Bika Mono Ve" is Kituba for "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour". I remember hearing this song during the time when a close friend of ours in Congo, almost an adopted member of our family, was put in jail for a crime he did not commit. When Dad and a group of friends went to visit him there, this was the song they sang over and over again. - Nicol

Selah sings the song in Kituba and in English.

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour

Hear my humble cry

While on others Thou art calling

Do not pass me by.

Saviour, Saviour, hear my humble cry

While on others Thou art calling

Do not pass me by.

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The song that tugged at my heart when I was listening to Fernando Ortega's CD was I Will Sing Of My Redeemer. It was the first time that I had heard of this hymn. I listened to it for another 10 times and went online to search for the lyrics and guitar chords.

I Will Sing Of My Redeemer

Words: Phil­ip P. Bliss, 1876. This is per­haps the last hymn Bliss wrote be­fore he died in a train wreck. He sur­vived the in­i­tial crash, but was killed try­ing (un­suc­cess­ful­ly) to res­cue his wife. The lyr­ics were found in his be­long­ings af­ter the ac­ci­dent. This song is al­so one of the first ever re­cord­ed on a phon­o­graph. George Steb­bins made the re­cord­ing dur­ing a dem­on­stra­tion of Thom­as Ed­i­son’s new in­ven­tion in New York C­ity.

Music: James Mc­Gran­a­han, 1877

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

Galatians 3:13

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" )

I hope that the two songs will encourage all of us in our walk with God - as they speak of the undying love of our Saviour, the enduring gift of His grace, the tremendous cost of our redemption, the resounding affirmation of His victory and the absolute certainty of His Second Coming. Amen.

Working for God

I just had to include these two wonderful excerpts because I think they will really be of tremendous help to us in our working environment, in fact, in all areas of our lives and even in our interactions with anyone. There could be some who feel that going into work sometimes is like going into a war zone. The second excerpt's for you! *smile*

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The first one comes from a Christian-leaning management and corporate learning website. And it is about communication. I'm trying to really get going on these habits. :-) Can you imagine a church, or a company, in which everyone is trying their best to cultivate these habits? Wow! That would be so amazing and such a loving environment! Don't they remind you of Christian principles in the Bible? *smile*

Communication Habit Traps To Get Into

• Tell it like it is - People are stronger than you think.
• Be kind - People are weaker than you think.
• Speak to everyone like an individual - People respond to respect.
• Listening aids good hearing - People want to be listened to.
• Choose the appropriate time and place - People have feelings.
• Avoid sarcastic criticism - People respond to encouraging challenges.
• Body language speaks loudly - People "see" what you say too.
• Be sincere - People believe people that are believable.
• Open your mind - People work poorly with no options.
• Be clear with instructions - People understand differently.
• Remember names - People try to remember yours.
• Show real interest - People like to see your human side.
• Be real - People are moved by earnest honesty.
• Show support - People work for those who work for them.

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The second one came from an interview that Christianity Today did with Bishop T.D.Jakes, who was listed in February by Time magazine as one of America's 25th most influential Evangelicals. If you want to read the full interview, please go to http://www.christianitytoday.com/workplace/articles/interviews/tdjakes.html

The Ten Commandments of Working in a Hostile Environment

1. Know that you are anointed for the job or position you now hold. God uses ordinary circumstances as a training ground to perfect our character.

2. Don't expect to be appreciated. God values humility and servanthood, not pride and entitlement.

3. Embrace opportunities for change. May we reach the stage of maturity when we are no longer surprised by change.

4. Do the job well while remembering the vision. The secret to performing your duties well where you are is to maintain a vision of where you're headed.

5. Don't let the environment get inside you. To counter bad attitudes, behavior, and gossip, maintain a regular diet of prayer and Bible study.

6. Increase your capacity to work with difficult personalities. Too often we only try to fit in and connect with others similar to us.

7. Where you are is not where you are going. Be peaceful while progressive….

8. Achieve optimal results with minimal confusion. We spend too much time trying to compensate for our weaknesses rather than capitalizing on our strengths.

9. Do not pledge allegiance to cliques and groups. The enemy tempts us with the security of the group and the approval of others.

10. Keep your song near you. Spend time in God's presence. Study His Word, offer up prayer, and look deep inside yourself to call up your song—praise and worship Him.

Recommended reads

Book: The Father Heart of God (Floyd McClung)

Most of us find it difficult to grasp the concept of a loving fatherly God because of the failings of our earthly fathers and mothers (they don't know how to love or they're just not there) and the emotional hurts and wounds that result from that.

Some examples from the book: A guy called Steve opens up on the happiest day of his life - the day his parents died in a car accident when he was 11, because every day before that, his parents had told him that they hated him and didn't want him. Another John Smith evangelised to a hardened, streetwise teenager who gave him one chance to talk about God. "Okay, mate," he said, "what is God like?" John blurted out, "He is like a father." The young man said, " If he's anything like my old man, you can have Him!" Later John found out that the youth's father had raped his sister repeatedly and beaten his mother regularly.

Only 100 pages long, the book packs a solid punch when it comes to dealing with how God heals our emotional wounds. It also talks about what it takes to be a father and mother in the Lord for others, and how to do our part in restoring broken relationships, through the Holy Spirit. There are also many testimonies of the healing power of God that comes from His love and grace, and the humility in confessing that we need His healing touch.

I benefited a lot from the book because it details a 7-step process on how God heals our emotional wounds. I realise I always stumble at the first step because the first step requires acknowledging my need for healing, and most of the times, my pride gets in the way. Also this book made me cry sometimes and weep other times. I'm reading through the book again slowly because I want God to reveal to me the areas of my life in which I still need healing, and for Him to begin His restoration work in me.

McClung is the senior pastor of Metro Christian Fellowship in Kansas City, and has served the Lord on three continents.

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Book: Desiring God - Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (John Piper)

Piper brings across the message that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, and he presents a very strong case (substantiated heavily by biblical references) that we should all be Christian hedonists. His views are strongly modelled on those of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), who wrote The Freedom of the Will and who was a staunch defender of Calvinist theology. Piper is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, and a graduate of Wheaton College and Fuller Theological Seminary.

Among the points he brings up:

- The happiness of God in God is the foundation of our happiness in God.

- Repentance and faith are our work. But we will not repent and believe unless God does His work to overcome our hard and rebellious hearts. This divine work is called regeneration, and our work is called conversion.

- The fuel of worship is a true vision of the greatness of God; the fire that makes the fuel burn white hot is the quickening of the Holy Spirit; the furnace made warm and alive by the flame of truth is our renewed spirit; and the resulting heat of our affections is powerful worship, pushing its way out in confessions, longings, acclamations, tears, songs, shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands and obedient lives.

- Love is the overflow of joy in God! It is not duty for duty's sake, or right for right's sake. It is not a resolute abandoning of one's own good with a view solely to the good of the other person. It is firstly a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God's grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person.

- Let us labour to memorise the Word of God - for worship and for warfare. If we do not carry it in our heads, we cannot savour it in our hearts or wield it in the Spirit. If we go out without the kindling of Christian hedonism, the fire of Christian happiness will be quenched before mid-morning.

- If the pump of love runs dry, it is because the pipe of prayer isn't deep enough.

- There are three levels on how to live with things: One can steal to get; or one can work to get; or one can work in order to give. Too many professing Christians live on level two. But the Bible pushes us relentlessly towards level three. Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others.

- The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but that they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses. The biblical mandate to husbands and wives is to seek your own joy in the joy of your spouse.

- Missions is the automatic outflow and overflow of love for Christ. We delight to enlarge our joy in Him by extending it to others.

- All suffering, of every kind, that we endure in the path of our Christian calling is a suffering "with Christ" and "for Christ". With Him in the sense that the suffering comes to us as we are walking with Him by faith, and in the sense that it is endured in the strength that he supplies through his sympathising high-priestly ministry. For Him in the sense that the suffering tests and proves our allegiance to His goodness and power, and in the sense that it reveals His worth as an all-sufficient compensation and grace.

The blue-coloured words incidentally form the chapters of his book. Piper offers a lot of biblical references which, in turn, make for a superb resource on the above themes. I usually don't like to underline sentences in books, but I did for this book. It has very rich content. *smile*

Prayer

When I first became a Christian, I heard a sermon during which the youth pastor taught about prayer through ACTS. That is,

A-doration (praising God for creation, His grace, love, mercy, among other things)

C-onfession (being honest with God and coming clean with our sins)

T-hanksgiving (giving thanks to God for the things He has done)

S-upplication (offering our requests in humility and in faith)

This helped me a lot during my initial prayers because I would mentally go through the four steps in my head while I prayed. It is also something I usually offer people who say they don't know how to pray or what to pray about. This is a pretty good set-up for prayer, and gives an initial idea of the breadth of my prayers.

Later on, my area pastor taught me how to pray the Word. That is, to pray bible verses aloud and appropriate them for myself. This was particularly useful in times when I couldn't think of anything, and I would turn to my Bible and to the book of Psalms. And I would, for example, take Psalm 1 and go: Lord, "Blessed am I who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But my delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law, I meditate day and night. I am like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose lead does not wither. Whatever I do prospers." This helped me hear the Word and also claim the promises of the Bible. And also it added depth to my prayer life.

Then, I realised that these would be subject to the prompting of the Holy Spirit during my prayer times. That sometimes, when I'm praying, the images of certain people or certain names would pop up in my head, and I knew that I was to pray for these people. And my prepared prayer script/list would be junked.

During my quiet time then, I was much more keen to tell God everything than I was to hear about what He had to say to me. I still do that nowadays. I will rattle on and on about my day, some things that I learnt about, my problems, my struggles, my joy, my delight etc. The result being that it felt like a one-way conversation most of the time. Then, I realised that hey, if I don't stop to listen, I won't be able to hear what God has to say to me in the areas of my life and His responses to my prayer requests etc. So I discovered that meditation was an important part of quiet time. That I was to be still before the presence of God, and just soak in the silence and pray that the Holy Spirit opens my eyes, my ears, my mind spiritually so that I may hear. And that I would be in the Holy of Holies, instead of being at the outer courts of His temple. Being still before the Lord is still very tough for me even now. Phew!

I hope that this account will make you all think about how you pray, and encourage you to pray. I won't mind if you all respond with your own accounts of your individual prayer styles. Those will be very interesting, I reckon!