Oh how he loves you and me

Recently, God has been reminding me to memorise Scripture and seal them in my heart and my brain. After the verses from The Little Bible, another opportunity caused me to do a straw poll among some of my colleagues for their favourite bible verses. Here are the results:

James 1:22
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Psalm 121
1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills-
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.


John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I
give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.


Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ[a] who strengthens me.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
17 Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God ^[a] is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.

The two below are my favourite verses:

Philippians 3:7-11
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.


1 Peter 2:9
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

PS: I'm still trying to figure out a way to memorise Scripture in an orderly manner. :-P

His mercies are new every morning

Nearing the end of a significant day in my life, I can say only "glory to God". Indeed, he has blessed me with a wonderful life thus far, and I have faith that my journey with Him in the future will be even more exciting, edifying and fruitful. Every day I wake up and thank God for His Spirit that is within me, and pray that He will empower and guide me to fulfil His calling for me in my life.

I thought it would be an appropriate day to remember my wonderful glorious identity in Christ.

The following are taken from My Little Bible, a very small little book filled with some bible verses. At the end of it, there is this segment called "Who am I in Christ".

Who am I in Christ?

Chosen by God
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, (Ephesians 1:4)

Made perfect forever
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)

Redeemed
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7)

Made at peace with God
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have^[a] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1)

Totally forgiven
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, (Colossians 2:14)

Totally cleansed
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Made holy and blameless
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— (Colossians 1:22)

Given Christ's righteousness
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Freed from condemnation
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,^[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

Made into a new creation
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Reconciled to God
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)

Made heirs of God
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of^[a] God through Christ. (Galatians 4:7)

Character-building

I took a character strengths survey some time back at this website. It turns out that my top five character strengths are:

1. Bravery and valor

2. Creativity, ingenuity and originality

3. Curiosity and interest in the world

4. Forgiveness and mercy

5. Love of learning

Another fellow counselling friend's was:

(1) Kindness and generosity

(2) Fairness, equity and justice

(3) Love of learning

(4) Capacity to love and be loved

(5) Humour and playfulness

The interesting thing was that these proved extremely true for both of us. :-)

Memories are made of this

A note left on my desk by a colleague.
The team treated me to lunch at Tomton
and ice cream at Azabu Sabo at Central,
one day before my birthday.
Very thoughtful of them,
and I really appreciated it a lot. The entire day
has been hardwired into my memory. :-)

A Wesley card from my counselling supervisors
received by post. I e-mailed them this picture
of a very happy me holding the card in return.



A very interesting gift sent through facebook
from one of my closest friends.
I love this because it's
very different and so me.
Her sms sent the night before
made her a very dear friend
who truly understands me way deep
to know my heart's desires.
Her sms to me was:
"Happy birthday to one of my bestest friends!
May God continue to use you
to touch the lives of those around you,
multiply your giftings to be used to further His Kingdom
and bless u with all the desires of your heart."

Wait for a moment directly beneath the star

I should probably have the words BOOK ADDICT branded onto my forehead.

Recently, I bought the Chinese illustrated version of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince and read it. After a few days, I was in Kinokuniya and couldn't resist buying the English illustrated copy, which was being sold in the children's section for only S$16.

I was touched when I read the story in Chinese, and equally moved when I read it in English.

The story's like a matryoshka doll, which keeps revealing more and more every time you read it.

There are some excerpts which I liked a lot:

"In those days I understood nothing! I should have judged by her deeds and not her words. She cast her fragrance around me and brightened my life. I should never have run away! I should have guessed the tenderness behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so contradictory. And I was too young to know how to love her."

"Now here is my secret, very simply: you can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

"The stars men follow have different meanings. For some people - travellers - the stars are guides. For others they are mere lights in the sky. For others still - the scientists - they are problems to be solved. For my businessman they meant gold. But for all these people, the stars are silent. For you, the stars will be as they are for no one else."

An ear for music

I've been reading Musicophilia - Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks and learnt quite a few interesting terms:

1. Musicogenic epilepsy/Musicolepsia - epileptic seizures induced by music.

2. Amusia - profound impairment in recognising melodies and in pitch discrimination. The person is tone deaf.

3. Synesthesia - instant conjoining of sensations. One person may perceive individual letters or days of the week as having their own particular colours, another may feel that every colour has its own peculiar smell, or every musical interval its own taste. For example, Monday could be green while D major is blue.

4. Aphasia - damage to the "speech area" in the brain's dominant (usually left) frontal lobe - whether from a degenerative disease, a stroke or a brain injury, may produce expressive aphasia - a loss of spoken language. Damage to a different speech area in the left temporal lobe results in receptive aphasia - difficult understanding speech.

5. Dystonia - certain twisting and posturing spasms of the muscles. It is typical of dystonias, as of Parkinsonism, that the reciprocal balance between agnostic and antagonistic muscles is lost, and instead of working together as they should - one set relaxing as others contract - they contract together, producing a clench or spasm.

Imparting grace

God amazes me always. I was faced with a difficult situation, and during the sermon on Sunday, God spoke to me through his Word. Through Ephesians 4:30-32, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."

I was also relating the situation to a dear friend, and she encouraged greatly through her listening as well as her considered opinion. She also pointed me to one of the verses that always calmed her - Philippians 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God;"

I prayed to God that I would be able to learn the lessons, and that this difficult situation would make me more spiritually mature.