ok people. with effect from 23/8/2006, i will be switching over from blogger to wordpress.
basically, i find word press functionality, organization and simplicity is what i look for as a blogger.
please do ask me for the new blog link on msn or personally. thanks.
when an opportunity is presented, the first humanly possible reaction is to grap it or like singaporeans are reknown for being "kiasu" and snatching it.
come to think of in life, there are opporunities are always there and every where. whether big or small. well, i thank god has been rather nice to me seeing my life and giving me opportunities that help me in this personal relationship with him.
for me, it happens in my guitars. you see i was like a late gamer, i only had that passion and desire to learn about guitars. however when i apporach people, they did not have time or were too busy though they had that heart in them to teach me. GOD was still nice to me even so. he did something i least expect.
after that he sent various mentors to aid me and jem came one day to challenge me to take up bass. i did and i can tell i will never look back to that decision. but i still knew i needed something to compliment what im learning. i prayed for it. i approach charles to teach me but given his busy schdule i expected he couldnt. almost gave in to giving in.
point is this. with prayer and petition, plus waiting patiently for an answer, GOD will give you the opportunity and it always seem to happen when you least expect it. =D
ive just returned from fireworks fellowhip. it was great and all. i enjoy this kinda times. just me and church mates talking, enjoying and sharing with each other. heck, i wish it never ended. similarly with other friends. ;)
here are some photos of fireworks and the kungfu gang. it was courtesy of jon wongs camera and joel's skillful photo taking mastery. =D
"who am i" is and will always be something that is emminent within youth, young adults and even adults are facing today. even i was facing it. it took me quite a will to answer that honestly.
you know when i tried to find out "who am i" at one time, recollections of such definitions such as "being who you are, is who you are". i tried things like acting cool, scolding vulgarities to get me "click" and wearing certain clothes or apparals that were famour brands like the shoes "addidas superstar", and even doing my own style, defining my own trend. was that "who am i". NO it wasnt!
than what do i see as "who am i". who am i? i am a child of GOD. i live by my instruction manual know which is the only one true word, the bible. im carrying the cross for him and im proud of it. =D
below is a following abstract is taken from samatha's blog. i feel you should go read it as it is really applicable to our lives. i share same opinions as her and i find it interesting the way she professional manners it. i love reading her blog. useful, applicable.
"Today’s sermon really answered a question that I’ve been asking for some time, which is, “Why is identity crisis so prevalent in many young lives today?” and I quickly and eagerly learnt that the answer to that simply lies in the answer to the question “Who am I”. Many of the points in the following paragraphs are based on the points preached in today’s sermon. It thoroughly blessed me, and I hope it blesses you too.
Piercings, studs, shirts that print the Mcdonald’s trademark “M” for “Marijuana”. Hip-hop, skaters, punk rockers, emo-punks. K-pop, J-pop, Taiwanese fashion bubble skirts. These change as fast as you can say “trend”, and the young people of today are forced to keep up with “cool”, excruciatingly more so than their counterparts from earlier decades.
The reason why so many young people alter themselves to achieve an exterior that sits dandy with any popular sub-culture is because they allow someone else to tell them who they are; because they could not find the answer to the question “Who Am I?” by themselves.
A recent play I caught with Suhui questioned the concept of Identity. Can it be defined, created, found, secured? Can you be sure of this identity that you eventually “find”, will it remain unchanging, eternal, safe?Today’s sermon had me by the edge of my seat as I listened and discovered the root of every teenager’s (and possibly, older) ailment: Identity Crisis. I learnt that it all lies in the question, “Who am I?” If you cannot answer this question for yourself, then surely others will start defining you on your behalf. Your parents tell you their career dreams for you; friends show you what it means to fit in (or not); MTV tells you to be a certain size or look a certain way; your teachers tell you that studies are the most important thing in life when - hey, no, isn’t living simply the most important thing? Teenagers’ blogs are full of phrases such as “sigh” and “I have no life” or “life sucks”. Whatever happened to the joys of youth?
The thing is, no one has the right to tell you who you are. Media moguls were very sharp on that, and cunningly turned that into a profiteering point. The docu-film Merchants of Cool, as I remember, had a line that went, “The new cool is now pseudo anti-cool”. “I am me. My life. My rules.” Nike says, “Just do it”, and Adidas tells us, “Impossible is nothing”. Teenagers are now being told that being cool was defining yourself in your own terms, and because impossible is nothing, anything is possible, so “just do it”. The result is a haphazard myriad of personas, uniqueness and full of independence, defiance and rebellion. Still, teenagers’ blogs are full of lamenting that nobody fully understands what goes on inside.
What now, if none can tell you who you are, and not even your own definition is to be trusted? Not to seem like I’m presenting a quick-fix one-size-fits-all answer here, but I’m saying it like it is nonetheless because it’s just so true: the answer is God. Of course! The one who created the universe and filled it with creatures and humans, the one who knew you before you were formed, who had an idea of who you were going to be is the only one qualified to say who you are. That tag on you came with an instruction manual, but like how we all are with instruction manuals, we ignore it. And end up missing out on so many more features we were wired with than we’d figured out ourselves. That means that Stacie Oricco and the dudes at Switchfoot were right: “There’s gotta be more to life”, and “We were meant to live for so much more”.
So now it becomes not simply an issue of who you are, but rather an issue of whose you are. Marked by the Maker’s fingerprints, you are able to overcome the physical things of this world. Not that you don’t face them, but you have the power to overcome them, because “you are not a human being having a temporary spiritual experience, but a spirit being having a temporary human experience”. Because you are your Maker’s; because the primary reality of this world is spiritual and not physical, you are locked safely to a spiritual security, so you can easily not sweat the small stuff. Sick? You can be healed. Hurting? You can be restored. Broken? In no time you’ll be made complete. You can now “do all things through Christ who strengthens you”, and where you are weak, “His grace is sufficient for you”.
Coming to Christ really isn’t just collecting your ticket to heaven. Who can make their passage to heaven, anyway? Now I may not exactly know what heaven nor hell is like, but I do know that it is hell enough to never be able to recognize my identity; to be on a constant search to please people to please me; to never ever measure up. But if I know whose I am, my identity is there. Tagged, marked, signed and sealed. And it will never change, because God is above the temporal, the mortal and the physical."
woohoo! i can tell you planetshakers concert titled ultraviolet rocked the house down. actually not the house, but the expo. it was really a good experience with GOD. seeing youths, young adults and adults across denominations all happily jumping around, praising and worshipping GOD was amazing!
we sang a lot of songs. new ones to old classics. new songs like pick it up, majesty, redeemer, arise and old classics like always and forever, jump around, big and evermore. i sang my heart out for GOD! to be honest, words cant describe how i feel. but i broke down. really, for the first time in my first concert i cried where my tear ducts couldnt stop overflowing. i felt the pain of every tear that flowed through my eyes. it was great. GOD prescence, the holy spirit broke me down. real bad! =D
but i liked the part where mike shared his testimony to the concert goers. it was good, interactive and funny. it kinda applied to my life. later when the show ended, all of us shouted "we want more!". but did we get it? NOPE! sobs. :'(
however, i felt the best thing was when the planetshakers team signed my CD and DVD that i purchase. i also got one for jasmine hoping that the gift would bless her in her life and help her in her walk. (enjoy it jas, wonder if you appreciate it tho. =X) sorry to my RP cell, my pocket didnt allow to get like 5CDs even. but i promise you the next time is happens, i will indeed. =D
hmmm, but something burdened my heart. really. never thought of it. i might want to go planetshakers church and study near that area. probably migrate and get married there? ;p
but ill miss Grace. o ya, below are some pics. taken off from my cam and borrowed from jas.
many people wish that days would reset and they could start over again. apprantly, i dont want to for today. im kinda freaked by what happened this morning. it totally gave me a new perspective. and i can tell you this is the first of many to come. real bad and nasty ones that will eat into my personal life. what can be so terrifying?
NIGHTMARES!
i woke up several times this morning as i was spiritually attacked by the nightmares in what was suppose to be a good nights rest (when was the last time i used that term?). i saw visions, flashes, voices of various people and scenes. for discretion purposes, i shall leave those name out, tell me personally if you wish for me to share it with you.
all these flashes, voices of various people and scenes had attacked me for returning back to youth and YA. it had made me wonder. gave me new perspectives.
i wanna thank a few people for helping me during the initial period. people like darren, justin,
joel, and unexpectedly my godbrother Daniel Heng.
Heng has been a good brother, bringing in a form of comfort when im hurt at times, like a bigger brother attending to his injured younger brother. Thank you so much!
well today was the first time i went back to youth service after a 2.5 years period. its been a long while since i ever took the first time through the level 3 hall. i thought i would never, i felt that i could no logner had the power to, but i actually did.
when attending youth service with justin and darren, they were models for a sermon related to tattoos. they had tattoos on various parts of their body. importance of such a thing was to drive through the thinking in our youth whether they should or should mark themselves with such things on the body. GOD looks at the inner person, not what is on the outside.
overall, i can say that youth is very different from what i had experienced a long time ago. i can sense and feel that the youth are heading towards the right direction, spiritual growing and you cant helped be blessed by them.
so to all the youths in R-AGE at there. jiayou! be youth for his glory!
Republic Poly
Year 2
Biomedical Science
Wishlist:
.all i want in this life time is you
.do well in school
.driving license+ hatchback!
.bass amplifier (SWR/Fender)
.fender 60th anniversay limited edition jazz bass
.playing for CAMY!
Tune In To What Im Listening:
W36L MadHouse:
W36 Mascot
My Past
Version 1
Version 2
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
[Flamin Fire]Jasmine