M&M #4

Deuteronomy 11:18

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Psalms 1: 2-3

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

just a tip for helping us to memorize these verses. personally, memorizing things (including verses) is a very difficult thing to do, a better way of doing this would be first to think through and reflect about what the verses are talking about, and see what God has to say to you in those verses. Then, after understanding and personalizing these verses, it would be much easier to do remember the verse :)

some things that maybe you can ponder about when you do M&M on the above 2 verses.

1) What does it mean to "tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads"? How can we apply it to ourselves?

2) PSA1:2-3 talks about delight in the law of the LORD. Do we desire and look forward to spending time with God, or are we always too pre-occupied with other things and just rush through a time of personal QT? Are we claiming the promises in verse 3?

Do post any comments, thoughts or even reflection points you have. We can share them in the next QT meeting too =)

Being brothers and sisters in Christ . . .

Hey brothers and sisters,

I thought of sharing to you all briefly on what i have gained from the business venture with Calyn during Valentine's Day period this year.

Both of us came together with the idea to try out this business of selling fresh flowers and my handmade cards together for the first time. We were not really sure of what/how much profit we can expect.

However, we decided to use this chance to fulfil our dream of setting up this business yet at the same time, wanted to use our blog to mention about God's love above all the relationships we have. We committed our prayers to God, asking for His guidance and blessings, protection over our small business, and we pledged to set aside half of our profits to fundings for our Uni ministry events such as Alpha course this year.

Throughout this whole period of pouring in 'sweat and blood' into this business, above the things God has blessed us with, (profits, publicity, people who worked with us, brothers and sisters who encouraged and support us), I thank God for this friendship I have with Calyn.

Such a friendship is something that i looked forward to, being able to be frank to one another about the things we feel unhappy/uncomfortable about each other. When there is conflict/clash of ideas, both of us seek to trash it out before one another. Such actions involve risk-taking in our friendship, but because we chose to take risk, our understanding of each other's characters and way of handling things grew much more, and leads to an open channel for feedback and correction if necessary.

Just want to encourage all of us to continue work towards building 'trust' and 'love' in your relationship with the brothers and sisters in the group, seek to resolve conflicts/issues/misunderstandings/hurts, reconcile this relationships that will place a smile on God's face. Afterall, all these things will follow us during our life on earth, and even much more longer when we see each other on the other side of Heaven.

Unit B CNY House Visiting 2008

CG timetable

I would love to upload the exact excel spreadsheet..but suaku me dont know how to..so for the time being we'll just stick to this pathetic pic..:)

NEWSFLASH CONT.

so its catholic? is it the same as christianity? bsides the mother mary part, so did he call on God's power or Mother mary? hmmm.......

NEWSFLASH!

NEWSFLASH!!

Filipino Catholic priest's healing touch cures thousands


MANILA: A Catholic priest in the Philippines is said to have cured thousands of sick people just by touching them. As early as six in the morning, thousands of sick people lined up outside a small Catholic church in Mandaluyong, just to be touched by Fr. Fernando Suarez. The Filipino priest has reportedly been able to heal any form of sickness in Canada, where he's been assigned for the past six years.

This is his first time to hold his healing masses in the Philippines. Many of those who came here said, they suddenly became well after Fr. Suarez laid his healing hands on them. Gerardo Palma suffered a stroke two years ago, and had difficulty walking. Alice Togra lost her eyesight due to meningitis complications when she was a child and she said she couldn't believe that she has regained her eyesight. Some would refer to Fr. Suarez as having supernatural powers, but for the healing priest, his healing abilities come from the Lord above.

The priest always begins his healing sessions with a mass. Fr. Fernando Suarez the healing priest, said: "The healing that I'm offering is not only physical. That's why I take time to explain and let the people know that physical is only one aspect of healing." “There are spiritual, psychological, emotional healing, and moral healing that we also need to be attended to and that's what this ministry is offering," he added. But the priest is also facing criticism at home. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said, though they acknowledge his special gift of healing, they still have to investigate the reported miracles.

Many bishops have also raised questions over the raising of funds for Fr Suarez' vision of a mega shrine, which would include a statue of Mother Mary as tall as the Statue of Liberty. The priest said donations are not mandatory, and that the planned five hectare site will serve as a pilgrimage site. Aside from Canada and the Philippines, Fr Suarez plans to spread his ministry to the United States and Asia. -CNA/vm

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southeastasia/view/327693/1/.html

kong xi fa cai!

Hello ppl
long time no see
bet you guys miss me!

Heehee don't you all just love my poem! anyway, it's been long long long due since the start of the year, and I've been meaning to post, but my memory failed me. Bleah. Here goes!

C - career/studies
Caps this sem: 4.0
I am going for all tutorials and lectures (even the b law one with the slow lecturer).
I am doing all tutorials, including extra questions.
I am going for more 'touch-up' workshops, classes, etc.
I am writing down impt things, notes and deadlines in my pink nus diary! (keep track of schedule, for I depended on my friend too much last sem.)
I am completing all the compulsory readings for fna, bsp, philo.
I am participating more in class discussions and in tutorials. (confidence must therefore be built.)
I refuse to push my project to the last min, even if it means nagging at my team mates at all expenses.

Okie! So, with that said, lets go on to...

R - relationship

Family
Current basic overview: With dad, it's fine. With bro, it's getting distant. With mom, it's on and off.

So I guess what I really need to work on is r/nship with mom and bro. Bro's in puberty stage (the act-cool stage) so he's just basically keeping to himself and all that, which I guess can't really be helped, so there's not much there to it that I am able to do. Still, I've been trying to talk to him at selective times, but he seems determined to maintain that distance. (Everytime I go to his room to talk to him, he tells me he just farted, and I do not dare to take the chance.)

With mom, it's so on and off. She's basically weird at times, complete with weird logic, behaviour and actions. When she comes to ka-jiao me (haha what a pun), I used to get really irritated and a quarrelling match occurs. Then, I adopted a 'ignoring you' stance. She continues her ka-jiao-ing. I really do not understand what she wants, and what I am supposed to do. Now, I am trying my best to do my work as she nags at me. It's working fine, so far. She gets what she wants (nagging, or what she calls talking to me), I use it as an exercise to try and do work while tuning out the 'noise'.

Friends
Okay, I guess I am fine with who I have now. So I think I will just improve my attitude towards all my friends, both close and not so close.

I have decided to open up more acquintances, be more friendly, less shy and more bold. Again, confidence comes in. I would have to be less judgemental, esp to those who seem like 'material girls'. I would also be more willing to listen, increase my sensitivity and be more considerate. =)

R/nship with jw is fine, thank God for that. =) yay.

E-economics
Hmm. I'm doing fine for this. Though a little tight recently due to Mom's illness. Five dollars a day is my budget, so I just have to eat lesser. A blessing in disguise? Heheh.

S-spiritual
I am praying everyday.
I am reading my Bible at least every other day.
I am listening and obeying Him when He speaks, not doubting it is Him and not me talking to myself.
I am doing my M&M's!

H-health
Okay, another touchy topic on trainings. (touch rugby only.)
Basic overview: I used to be really really good. I could play really well, doing my own stuff, listening and doing what others tell me to do, and all that. I could defend, attack and cover for others.

Well, it deteriorated during the hols. My passion for trainings drained off, faster than the speed of light, due to pressure. Pressure from team, coach and especially, myself. Expectations too high to be met, to the extent that I refused to allow a single mistake. Result? I got worse. Slow reflexes and speed, ball handling and all else cannot make it.

So, I've decided. No pressure, go for trainings just to play. Play and listen at the same time. I will listen to my instincts more on defense, listen to team mates on attack. As much as possible, I am doing 30-30. 30 crunches/sit-ups and 30 push-ups everyday. This is to train core muscles, to be more flexible, and to train arm strength to pass further. As for speed and stamina, I am going all out to 'kill' during trainings. Watch out! =P haha. No more reserve, no more 2nd team.

So yeah! That's all folks! Guess you guys will see lesser of me at hq this sem. I've got a lot of readings and extra homework, online and off, to do. Got to attend workshops too. Bleah. See all of you later today! I am going for steamboat, shun bian collect angbaos too!! YAYS!

Labour in ur walk with God

Yest morn, while i was reading e bible, i was reminded by God abt labouring in our prayer/ walk with god/ relationship with god.

What does it mean to labour? Jasmine mentioned in one e services abt labourin in prayer and last sat's service, think shirley melinda also mentioned abt labouring in our prayers, our walk with god.

I was reminded of this as i was reading Joh 6:27.
It says "do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you. on him God the father has palced his placed of approval"

I wanna share with you my thoughts on "do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life"

What is food that spoils? To me it represents physical things that i hold important in my life, which will cause me to compromise God (spending time with him), things such as my studies. I was just reflecting about my life, abt my attitude towards my studies. It is true that i labour for my studies. I study really hard fr pri sch until now. And i want to do well in my studies. I do my homework and when exams come, i really mug for it. I spend time studying and doing tutorials and spend time studyin for tests and exams. Time is spent on it and I want to do well.

The second part of the verse talks abt "but for food that endures to eternal life"
Here it simply means that we have to work for food that endures to eternal life. I was thinking eternal life means my relationship with God. So with the same attitude towards my studies, i was thinking if this is my attitude towards God too.
Do i spend time with God as much as i spend on studyin? Do i want to do well in my relationship with God as much as i want towards my studies? Sadly the ans is no and yes.

No i do not spend as much time nor am i always faithful in growing my relationship with God. But yes i desire for our relationship to deepen, to understand God more, to know Him more, to experience more of Him in my life. So, what do i have to do? I will have to work on this relationship. Like any other relationship, to understand the person more, to love the person more, i need to spend time with him/her, so as to know him/her better, so as to love him/her more.

Sat's service was abt loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (mark 12:30). I think it is really timely and appropriate for me at this point. This is the start of 2008 and many of us (including myself) have set our new year resolutions. But is one of our new yr resolutions abt lovin God more? Loving God more will lead us to Love God in action and our relationship with God will Grow (and this is food that will endure to eternal life!!!!)

Personally, this is a very good stop-check for me to set my heart straight and my eyes fix on God. Not that i neglect my studies and just be a person who day-in and day out hallelujah. The point is that am i that faithful towards God as i am towards my studies? Am i that passionate towards God as i am towards other things? Do i spend as much time with God as i do with my studies?

My answer is no. I always hurried my quiet time and prayer time. I myself my guilty of not spending time with God, using things around me and being busy as an excuse. This yr my everyday prayer will be to experience God every single day and I am going to labour in my prayer and labour in reading God's word.

For it is through prayers and through God's word which is living and active that life is transformed, that life is touched, that healing comes about, that breakthrough happens, that we find peace, that we find strength, that we grow to be more n more christ-like, that we find purpose and destiny.

Want to encourage all of us to realign our focus back to God and to really love God with all our heart,soul,mind and strength. If we can labour/work for the things in our life that are not eternal (such as studies, relationships, sports, money), then why don't we starting from today, labour/work for things that are eternal (our relationship with God).

Want to end of with this verse that i am memorising and mediating on:
"... your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our LORD Jesus Christ." 1Ths 1:8

new yr resolutions

I want everything to remain the same except for my studies basketball and trading
studies, i must maintain my 3.5 or get better
I must train up to be like my Coach, esp shooting so i can look more frenly playing with anyone, i can play serious n have fun BUT when i play serious ppl feel im too tough, i may hurt them, so to be able to play with ANYONE, mus be gr8 shooter, GR8 SHOOTER
I MUST DO MY BEST to become a CONSISTENT trader by the end of the year

i know this journey is tiring, the Lord will give me strength, and personally, if i cannot do well, i might as well just go heaven sooner

either do ur best or not do at all,
Minghan

2008 - a 16 day late post

long time since i posted anything, think since the birth of this blog space. today was the first day of school. somehow made me think a lot and also fine-tuned some of my resolutions for 2008. lemme share my new year goals/objectives/resolutions/whatever-else-you-call-it.

the CRESH framework seems like a good way to plan for myself in this already started year. so i decided to plan according to it.

C aka Career/Studies. i prefer to call it C for CAP, since thats like the most important tangible thing we need/get from university. reflecting back a bit, i set the goal of attending every lesson 2 sems back, and failed miserably as expected and set the goal of attempting at least every other tutorial last sem, since setting the goal of attending every lesson is like mission impossible, similar to how running weekly is impossible too. Thus for this sem, to deal with the issue of consistent work throughout the sem, i set for myself to attend 90% of ALL lessons, be it lectures or tutorials (labs are take-home and do at your sleep-time for SOC), and attempt every single tutorial for my core modules, and attempt at least every OTHER tutorial for my non-core mods aka EC1301 n PH1101E. :P another thing i want to set out and do for this semester would be to do up "helpsheets" or summaries for each module as well, which helps in extracting the main points of each chapter and might me to know what im studying better too.

Goal of this sem. 4.0+ (aka at least B+ average) for this sem alone. and 3.5+ CAP score.

R for Relationships. there are many aspects in relationships. and i haven had any real breakthrough in this area for quite some time. firstly would be for family ba. what i would strive to do is to spend more time with my mum and my sis since they are living alone. i also pray for myself to be more willingness in my attitude to do things for them or spend time with them. in terms of r/s with fellow brothers n sisters. i pray for a when dealing with everyone to allow for deeper and more meaningful relationships to be nurtured. also, may God helps to strengthen relationships with certain ppl as we all continue to serve Him. another aspect would be my r/s with my shepherd aka bowen. looking back at the past sem, i would say that the friendship has indeed grown, but i believe God wants more than just friendship in such a r/s. may God help me to grow in my more patient and accepting heartwillingness to be more open n vulnerable to share lives to him.

E for Economics. first thing that came to mind is finances. well it was off to a bad start this year though. for the month of january i'm left with like 20-30 bucks. thinking back about 2007, i spent like almost every single cent of my allowance, and justifying it with the excuse of needing to pay for car expenses and stuff. deep down i know those are just excuses, and at the very minimum i would stil be able to save at least 200-300 for the entire year. certainly a very bad steward of money. my goal for this year would be to save $1000 bucks. that would be like around 20% of my allowance for the whole year. what to do with this money, i shall decide at the end of the year, be it to go for overseas holiday, buy a new computer/ps3, or even just throw it into my savings acct for future use. i pray for God to assist and guide me in my management of money in this year. if i can't even manage my meagre allowance properly and wisely now, how am i going to manage my 4 or even 5 figure pay in future next time? :P another aspects of economics would be my time management. with 2 free days this sem and 6 modules, as well as first hand experience from a tiring wednesday today (even though w/o tutorials), i can safely assume that time management would be a crucial factor to determine my health as well as my academic performance for the next 4-5 months. one thing i want to do would be to force myself to sleep at latest 1am every day.

S for Spiritual. most tangible, i want to finish reading the Old Testament. more than half-way there now. but need to discipline myself to really go in-depth and not lose focus on trying to extract God's truth in the Word instead of just reading through. I pray for eagerness in this aspect and to focus really to understand instead of the goal of finish the bible once. On a more personal note, i pray for God to reveal to me in His timing direction and guidance in certain aspects of my life that i've been praying for. one such aspect would be simply what He wants me to do in this year for Him. even for the upcoming 3 month holidays, im praying for Him to show me what would be better for me, be it going for an internship, or just simply avail myself fully again for e annual matriculation season. (internship need to apply early one, so need to start asking Him for ans alr :P not ganjiong spider haha) Also, one thing i really want this year would be to have a deeper intimacy with God, and to experience Him more real than ever before in my life. wanna finish reading the books "Experiencing God", "Every Man, God's Man" and "Boy Meet Girl" too. as i shared during CG at parkway, i want to really grow in my M&Ms and put into practise the verse from 2 Tim 4:2 - Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. why so? i realised how inadequate i've been in sharing my faith as well as explaining/answering questions about my faith, and thats simply not the way things should be.

H for Health. as i said earlier, aiming to run weekly is close to if not totally impossible heh. let me start from a more realistic goal. gym/run/bball every week. so far for the first 3 weeks of this year, i managed to do it. may God provides me with the determination and strength to continue on this workout journey. An end goal would be to lose some weight in this year. hopefully to the extend where i look like what i am when i finish BMT. that would be good lol. it will makes my life easier too when i go back for reservist. haha. Also to at least pass my IPPT and aim for silver timing in my 2.4km run.

super wudi long post of mine. haha. as we commit our resolutions/goals/objectives/watever for 2008 to God, may He help us in every aspect we pray for and be with us as we strive towards achieving these goals.

just a verse i thought we should hold on to when we make resolutions. PHI 4:13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

=)