An anchor holds within the veil

I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
My anchor holds within the veil

Cornerstone - Hillsong

God's love letter to you

My Child,

You may not know me, but I know everything about you. 

 Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up. 

 Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways. 

 Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. 

 Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image. 

 Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.

 Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring. 

 Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived. 

 Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation. 

 Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. 

 Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. 

 Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

 Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother's womb. 

 Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born. 

 Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me.

 John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. 

 1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 

 1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child and I am your Father. 

 1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. 

 Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father. 

 Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. 

 James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. 

 Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. 

 Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love. 

 Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore.

 Psalms 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing. 

 Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you. 

 Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession. 

 Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul. 

 Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things. 

 Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. 

 Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. 

 Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires. 

 Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. 

 Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager. 

 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. 

 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you. 

 Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. 

 Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. 

 Revelation 21:3-4

And I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth.

 Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus.

 John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. 

 John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being. 

 Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. 

 Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.

 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 

 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you. 

 1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I lovedthat I might gain your love. 

 Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me. 

 1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you from my love again.

 Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen.

 Luke 15:7

I have always been Father, and will always be Father.

 Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…Will you be my child? 

 John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you. 

 Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your Dad

 Almighty God

Father's Love Letter used by permission Father Heart Communications © 1999-2013www.FathersLoveLetter.com

A husband's love for his wife

First and foremost, I want to thank God and give praise to Him for another divine encounter that has left me so deeply moved, teary-eyed and absolutely determined to write it as a note so as to give glory to Jesus. He always touches me to the right time to encourage me in my faith journey with Him and to remind me of what the term "perspective" is really all about. :-)

One of the most wonderful things in my life has been my conversations with cab drivers, which mostly take place on Friday nights after cellgroup meetings. Tonight was another divine encounter. I left my cellgroup leader's house at 10pm. Took the lift down, walked past the coffeeshop and then sat down on the entrance steps to one of the Peranakan double-storey homes facing the coffeeshop. I called for a cab and waited for a booking to be confirmed. After 10 minutes, I saw an empty cab drive out from the carpark next to the coffeeshop. So I stood up and hailed the cab. It stopped and picked me up. The cab driver asked me for my preferred route and I told him to take the AYE. He was happy because he said that although the route was longer, it was not as congested as the PIE. I then explained to him that sometimes I would take a cab late after work near China Square and I would always ask the cab driver to take the AYE. So he asked me why I was there so late tonight, and I told him that I had just finished attending a cellgroup session. He then said: "Oh! I'm a Christian, too, and I attend New Creation Church's hokkien service under Pastor Mark." After that, we started chatting about other stuff.

During the journey, I suddenly felt that I should ask him when he accepted Jesus as his Saviour and what led him to do so. He told me that he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour five years ago. During that time, his wife discovered that she had breast cancer and subsequently had one breast removed. After the masectomy, his wife fell into severe depression. He told me that he stopped work for 18 months to take care of his wife because she was in very bad shape. The wife was under medication but continued to be severely depressed.

Then one day, his friend brought along a lady volunteer/counsellor who gave his wife a bible on their first meeting. He said he knew something was different when his wife accepted the bible and started talking well to the lady, in a tone and manner that contrasted with how she had behaved over the past few months. He mentioned that he was a freethinker at that time. The lady followed up with his wife and accompanied him and his wife as they went from church to church to find a church to settle in. His wife was comfortable with New Creation Church. He said that after attending church for six months, she recovered from her depression to the extent that her doctor said she could go off medication and to see him only if she felt a need to. He kept praising God as he was telling me this story and said that God was all powerful. He and his wife have been faithfully attending church ever since. 

After sharing his wife's story, he also shared his own testimony. He said that he suffered a stroke a year ago and when his family was rushing him to hospital, they kept praying for him in the car all the way to the hospital. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctor who examined him said he had indeed suffered a stroke but that his body was fine. He took two to three months off just to rest and recover, and then he resumed driving his cab.When the cab reached my destination, I paid him the fare and told him: "I can tell that you love your wife very much." He looked at me and replied: "God bless you."  

Our Deepest Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson (Our Deepest Fear)

I choose Jesus

I Choose Jesus - Moriah Peters

In remembrance

A man who ignited my love for books was born on this day. 

I aim to place a rose on his grave some day. 

Thank you, Tolstoy, for making me part of who I am today.

The ties that bind

I committed to writing a reflective note about my birthday. As I thought about what I wanted to write, it became clear that I wanted to write about myself but more than that, I wanted this note to be about other people. No man, or indeed woman, is an island. As much as I crave for solitude, I need to constantly remind myself that life is all about people and connections.

Some people come into my life and I know they will be there till I die. Others appear at certain times and make an impression so deep and lasting that even when they fade out, I am no longer the same. And there are others, who have not been in contact with me for many years. But I know that as and when we do meet up, there is no barrier. We will be transported back to that time when we were young and foolish and so full of dreams, and we will behave as we did then. Yet others leave, and some of them leave graciously. I hope that when I meet them again sometime, somewhere, we can look at one another and smile, and pick up from where we left off.

So, I want to honour the ties that bind. 

To the people mentioned in this note, your presence in my life is a blessing to me. I thank God for you.

+ Every single person who whatsapped me, Facebooked me or smsed me to wish me Happy Birthday. I appreciate all your good wishes and made it a point to reply to all of you individually. Thank you. All of you made my day. J

+ My family, even though only half of them could make it for dim sum at Wah Lok because of my poor organisational skills, in particular my nephew whose eyes lit up when I mentioned that we could order Peking duck. To my elder sister, who gave me a DVF bag, and always whatsapps me the latest bag and shoe sales on online US websites, in particular, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Ralph Lauren. To my younger sister, who sometimes seems more adult than I am!

+ My extended family, whom I am grateful for. Thank you to all my uncles, aunties and cousins. I’m happy to say that we’re getting more and more new additions to this group. Two are flying in early next month, along with their parents. J

+ My BFFs - three who had dinner and coffee with me on the night of my birthday, and I know the one in Deutschland was with us in spirit that night, too. The one who loves her wrist, the one who loves to bake, the one who loves meat, and the one who loves justice; the group that never stops chatting, never tires of chatting and never runs out of things to chat about (contributed by the one who loves justice).

+ My very dear friends - One living in the US whom I message almost daily and confide in; one who just went to Penang; one who is now in Langkawi; one who has made it, wedding dress and all, to Dublin; one who is a fellow sojourner in Christ and alerts me to YWAM events among others; one who just bought her own place; one who is always open and honest with me; and one who was my shopping guru/consultant.

+ The Usual Suspects – never would I dare dream that I could meet such a solid bunch so late in my life. Thank you all for a fabulous time in HK, as well as for dinner + birthday sms dedication to GoodFellas at Timbre. Leave no man behind, indeed.  

+ WMC CM – thank you for the ministry which allows me to help others. In doing so, I am more self-aware and I have been ministered to in so many ways. The fellowship is always wonderful. I’m so looking forward to the October retreat.

+ The “A” list – the wonderful wordsmiths around me who get it that I am so focused that I seem sucked into my screen; that I talk/communicate only via Lync; that I am hard of hearing; that I can’t see well, too; that I am liable to hum/sing/raise my hands or stare at the ceiling at my desk; that I have a glazed look; that I go off-tangent sometimes; and that I decline lunch invites sometimes because I need my alone time. To the one who is going to Bali; the one who just came back from Sri Lanka; the one who is going to Australia; the one who was in HK; the one who loves Viet and Mexican food; and the one who loves salads. J

+ Others worthy of mention in the “A” list: to the one who treated me to delicious dry mee suah at a kopitiam and, more importantly, trusted me in many things; the one who treated me to mocha at Dimbula’s and kept repeating “you’re not 25 anymore, you know? You’re not 25 anymore, you know?”; the one whom I meet every day in the transport van and who shares a common love for anything creative and whom I hope will be very famous some day because I own some of his paintings; the one who brought me on a long and winding road to Shoebox Canteen with another, treated me to awesome seafood pasta, brought us to shop for accessories (although I bought only one accessory and many pairs of colourful socks); made a detour to Good Morning Nanyang Cafe at Telok Ayer Hong Lim Green Community Centre; and took a different route back to the office, thus ensuring that I don’t think I know how to get back to Shoebox Canteen on my own (but it’s okay, it’s alright, it’s fine); and to the others who make it such a joy for me to go into the office and to simply write, write, write, write and write.

+ The cat-lover, who whatsapped me to ask me to be by the side door around 2pm one day. I replied “okay” but subsequently switched back to work mode. Then a colleague whispered to me: “Hey, someone’s waiting for you in the pantry.” I jumped out of my seat and raced to the pantry, apologising profusely for forgetting. Apart from the DVDs that were returned to me, I was also handed a belated birthday gift - a Lin Hwai-min autographed book on Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, along with a nice hand-written note. It caught me by surprise, but it was a very sweet gesture.

+ The newsroom crowd – miss the buzz and I am so thankful that we make it a point to always catch up as and when one of us has a birthday. You are all keepers for life.

Thank you, Jesus. You are the Alpha and the Omega. May my life always reflect You, my Lord and my Saviour. :-)