A Devotional Corner

I had my graduation ceremony yesterday. It was relaxing. I got to sit there for about 2hrs thinking about nothing. What a nice break from all the work around me!

Near the end of the ceremony, the chancellor dude reminded us to thank all those people who had contributed to our success. It was at that moment that I remembered God ( not that I forgot about Him). As he continued, on our behalf, to thank the parents, academics blah blah... I sat there thinking about how much God had shown me and How much he had helped me through the most stressful times.

Thanks God! ALWAYS

Posted by Jot.. at 9:33 am | Permalink | Comments

In the bible, God gives people names and the names hold meaning. It also gives an indication of their past or of their future.

http://www.20000-names.com/male_hebrew_names_02.htm
What does your name mean?
... IVAN, IOAN, IAN, IBAN, IONNES: gift from God

Thanks God

Posted by Jot.. at 2:05 pm | Permalink | Comments

The Bible keeps talking about enemies.
War with them and victory over them.

Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.
- Pslam 108:12,13

Do you have an enemy?
If not:
"I'm my worst enemy " (from somewhere)
Surely there are people out there today who
hate Christians have declared war on them.

Jokes aside, Who is my enemy?

Posted by Jot.. at 1:06 pm | Permalink | Comments

Thanks for the Great comments!

When we pray, we tell God about the things in our lifes, not that he doesn't already know. He knows completely. When we ask for things, he already knows our needs. Whatever happens, God has already planned it, and it is perfect.

Do we still pray For things?
Do we say " Dear God please give me this... " or " Dear God, please make this happen..."

The purpose of prayer is not to change God's mind. Who can?!

...(Moses? i remember that God was about to do something to punish the people, and then Moses pleaded and saved the people from God's wrath) :D

Posted by Jot.. at 6:30 pm | Permalink | Comments

I Believe in God.
Do you Believe in God?

or

I Know God.
Do you Know God?

or

I Have Faith in God.
Do you Have Faith in God?


Which one sounds more convincing?
Are any of them wrong?

Posted by Jot.. at 1:38 pm | Permalink | Comments

Earlier on in the evening, we had a blackout for around an hour or so. Normally when a blackout occurs, people would start to frantically head for the torches and the candles. The most obvious reason why people search for light is that they are fearful of living in the dark. The feeling of insecurity: no light, no electricity, no food, no water!

However, instead of searching for light this time, I sat back and relaxed for once. One reason was because I felt lazy! :P But more importantly, I was thinking, what light would you need when you know you have God as your guiding light inside you?

With that in mind, it makes me think how wonderful God has been in bringing us light. He has given us wisdom so that we could extend light into night time. (Of course, I don't mean that God brings light only in this form when I said He is our guiding light). Imagine life without light during night time. How inconvenient would it be? What would life be like?

Read Psalm 27 (NIV from biblegateway.com)

Posted by Ivan at 8:48 pm | Permalink | Comments

I found out, while chatting with a friend today that we were praying for opposite things. I was praying that an event will happen and my friend was praying that the event will not happen.
What happens when 2 persons pray to God but they pray for the opposite things? I guess you can say that since they are opposites, then one of them may turn out to be the will of God and the other one may not.
Or you can say that one is more righteous than the other and so the more righteous one will get what he wants. ( This one is unlikely..?)

For example: there is a job (one position). Both person A and person B prays that they will get it.

If God gives B the job does that mean that he is not listening to A? does it mean that he is listening to B??? is A less righteous? B more?

Posted by Jot.. at 11:47 pm | Permalink | Comments

Jot has raised an interesting point. Many evangelistic talks often place not enough emphasis on the fact that after you believe in Jesus Christ dying in our place for your sins, we have to submit our lives to Him to live a 'new' life. Many non-Christians would subsequently have the attitude where they think: "Yeah, Nice information you have told me. Lets get back to our lives now" despite the fact that they believe in Christ dying for us.

I understand that its really the part of the process where its up to them to save themselves, it is a road to discovery. However, if they are reluctant to walk the road to discover themselves, what is it that we can do to encourage them to walk down this path? Is there a way where we could place more emphasis on this 'new' way of living? Is there more that we could do on top of our prayers for them? How can we structure the way we spread the Good News to challenge them to this new way of life?

Posted by Ivan at 1:24 am | Permalink | Comments

Not-really-devoted believers of God are always reluctant to speak about God. They claim it is a "personal relationship", something private and should not be discussed and that the conversation should move on. However, you realise that they do not turn to God, whether to praise for the wonderful things our Father gives us, or some do not turn to Him when they feel feared.

Others that are also arguing for this "personal relationship" go against the idea of sharing thoughts on how the bible should be interpreted and says that no one should ever tell another how to interpret the bible. Reading the bible is a "personal relationship" where God personally speaks to us. True. But sadly, learning more, you realise that they either have not picked up The Bible and made an attempt to read it, or the last time they read the Bible was before time existed?

"They claim that they know God, but their actions deny it. They are hateful and disobedient, not fit to do anything good." (Titus 1:16)

Posted by Ivan at 10:56 pm | Permalink | Comments

Being Christians, we should always attempt to draw ourselves closer to God, and we should offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him (Romans 12:1).

Leading a Christian life is like children being led into a playground by their father. The father tells his children that they are allowed to play within the perimeters of the playground and are not to go elsewhere. Then he goes away and leave his children to play at their leisure, but he has told the children that he will come back to pick them up later in the day.

The father has not set down a concrete perimeter that they are to play within. A majority of the children have problems with the confined space. However there are some who challenge the area that they are confined to and begins to expand the perimeters of the playground outwards. And there are others who gets lured by the lollypop man and starts to leave the playground.

Being a good Christian, we listen to God's word and we try to lead our lives "within the confined space in the playground". Then there are Christians who "challenge where the boundary of the playground is" and tries to bend the rules set out in the bible. Finally, the weaker Christians who cannot pass the test of temptation gets lured away by Satan.

Be content, and don't run out of the ring! Be strong and don't let your fellow Brothers and Sisters leave either! Bring the lost ones back!

Posted by Ivan at 10:28 pm | Permalink | Comments

I usually take walks at night (my pathetic attempt to do exercise). I always pass this corner where the station is and lately I was unfortunate enough to step into something when i walked pass that corner. ... yuk.... (dog stuff)
Well I was quite annoyed and walked away saying stuff ...
A few days later I walked pass the corner again. And yep my foot was in it again. And again I walked away saying things..

I was thinking, what can I do to express my annoyance. After the walk, I came to the conclusion that nothing really could be done (appart from the extreme).
I also thought: what inconsiderate people there are out there. letting their dog do their business on a piece of ground that is used by so many people every day.
In the end I asked myself what I should feel as a christian. There are so many inconsiderate ppl out there and there is no way to tell them (or teach them).

Some things we have no control over. Even very small things. How should we feel? What do we do?

Now when I take my walks around that corner, I keep my eyes on the ground.
Smart?
Only thing I can do

Posted by Jot.. at 7:41 pm | Permalink | Comments

Sometimes I have a feeling of frustration when I see non-Christian friends, as I feel really sorry that they could not share the unconditional love that God offers us (yet). However, what gets more heartbreaking is when you hear some of them deny the existence of God, especially when you feel helpless in not being able to bring them closer to God.

A heartbreaking feeling exists even when we are faced with only a few close friends. Imagine how much more pain and sorrow our Father in Heaven, Who gave life to all these people, would have to bear when they deny His existence?

Yet, "for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). He loved the world so much that He offered us a gift that we humans never deserved: sending His own dear son to die for our sins and offering us eternal life.

God has not given us up. We should not give our non-Christian friends up either! Radiate yourselves for "No one lights a lamp and covers it with a bowl or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on the lampstand, so that people will see the light as the come in" (Luke 8:16).

Posted by Ivan at 8:13 pm | Permalink | Comments

In a discussion with my friend, we were trying to determine whether 'Faith' is:
(1) A binary function: That is, to have faith, or to not have faith? or,
(2) A varying factor: Where you can have no faith, little faith, and more faith.
Of course, if we take the latter idea, no one except God would know whether there will be an upper limit to this spectrum.

Does this in a way then, relate to the idea of seeing whether a Christian is strong or weak? Again, one may ask how strong and weak will be defined? Who defines it?

Please share your thoughts and help me on these matters! Thanks.

Posted by Ivan at 4:49 pm | Permalink | Comments

Trying to spread the Good News to non-Christian family members may sometimes pose problems. The foremost problem is their questioning of the depth and scope of your understandings. They begin to question your authority and fail to continue to listen to the Good News.

In a way, this is similar to the situation when Jesus was back in his home town, where Jesus said: "A prophet is respected everywhere except in his own home town and by his relatives and his family" (Mark 6:4). People in Jesus's home town still questioned His ultimate authority as the Son of God.

Although Jesus was not able to perform any miracles at his home town, he still managed to place his hands on a few sick people and healed them (Mark 6:5). From this, we are reminded that although we may not be able to have a strong and big influence on our family members that do not have faith when we spread the News, we should never neglect the small influences that we could make.

They may not have faith. But you should not lose faith!

Read Mark 6:1-6 (NIV from biblegateway.com)

Posted by Ivan at 2:26 pm | Permalink | Comments