Sitting Awhile With Him...
[Arrival at Highlands Christian Centre, Tanah Rata for RBS 2008]
No words to meditate on, but it was the Word who was always sitting with me, protecting me all the way up in a bus company with long history of tragic cases - GRANT WISDOM Kurnia Bestari to the driver.
Reflecting On What Great Things He Has Done...
A really big thank You to You, LORD! I managed to arrive here for Residential Bible School at Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands in one piece of Your artwork and so did others in the same bus. The road up to this place was a winding one and very narrow. I guess in somehow it represents the Christian life, the windy and narrow path. I’m really grateful for protecting me and provided friends along the way so I need not to do anything alone. Yahweh Yireh, thanks for providing me to have fellowship with James, Simon, Linus, Sarah, Elena, Ruth and Wern Ming. These guys are really a great encouragement to me.
Looking back at the steps leading up to Highlands Christian Centre (HCC), with You, I managed to endure it with all the bags I had to carry. I felt that it reflects Your message to suffer to temporarily for You on earth than to enjoy first and suffer later in hell. If Ruth and I were to go the easy way, the wide and comfortable road, I might just get knocked by a car as we do not know what’s lurking behind the sharp corners. Instead, I chose to take the narrow, steep stairway which is able to keep my eyes focused on HCC, at least I know what’s ahead, just like I know that my Christian walk leads to Heaven for sure. Another thing I did learnt that while I was walking up the steep stairway, I had to be careful so that I won’t fall down and cause others behind me to fall as well. Here I want to pray that I do not become a stumbling block to others and cause them to trip and fall. Thanks also for allowing me to choose this path, the right way to reach and know You.
Lord, I thank You also for giving me a foretaste of heaven when I reached HCC on the end of the stairway. Friendly faces greeted us just like what I can expect when I reach Heaven. Another thing that I see through Your eyes is that I can leave my burdens to You, like leaving all my cumbersome luggage in HCC. When I went back down the stairs again for lunch, I felt light. Therefore, I hope that after RBS, I can walk back down to reality without burdens as all burdens I want it to be lifted by You Lord at RBS.
Next, it’s pancakes for lunch on the menu – my favourite peaches with honey! However, behind the pancake, was a humble, deaf and mute couple preparing it. I came to know they are Christians too. First thing I learnt was that the reason You have to speak through the Bible. The deaf and mute uncle had to read the orders we wrote to him, then only he can know what pancakes to make. I am just like that uncle, deaf and mute, unable to understand if You were to speak audibly in Your way. Thanks so much for Your precious Word. Help me to overcome my resistance not to read Your orders in the Bible and make Your pancake. I do not want to produce the pancakes that You don’t like. I want to make a sweet and wonderful pancake to You and receive the rewards. RBS is the pancake making course I’m going through. And bless this couple too. It’s Your hands working in their lives and they bear fruit on the pancakes they make. The peaches on the pancake were a lot and definitely delightful to take in, don’t You think so Lord?
Wow, Lord, I did not knew I can write and learn so much when writing this simple thoughts and things. I did not really thought of the meaning behind all these things at first. It was Your Holy Spirit’s refreshing that enabled me to think again. If not, I would have lost the marvel of all the great things You will do in the little things of my life.
Just one more thing out of the endless things I want to thank You for. The dinner was great, not as what I expected David told me that the soup taste and is water. I hope the soup I make at RBS is not plain either. You have given me living water and I’m going to spice it up to make a good soup for you to take in. And a good start of soup making was at the orientation night. I enjoyed the Bible book arranging game. I got Proverbs. Is that a hint that You want me to study Proverbs during my quiet time at RBS? I am glad You answered that question as You enabled me to visualize a goal to study Proverbs, Your words of wisdom. Miraculous, I must say…
Oh, Lord, that’s all I can record for this day. The spirit is willing to tell more of Your great stories in me, but the flesh have to finish 27 Dec the next minute. You are the author my life, I am just the typist, so continue to check and enjoy this writing of mine!
Wednesday 26 December 2007
E-Mail To GOD
(coz it’s faster and is not corrupted by Pos Malaysia :D)
From: yongzehao[at]hotmail.com
To: God (Lord, I don’t think You have an email address since you are always present at any given time and place.)
Subject: Residential Bible School (RBS) 2008
Dear God, thank You for placing me in RBS 2008. I know it is definitely wasn’t a mistake You gave me the strength to overcome all the obstacles that blocked me from going to RBs such as the Taylor’s College offer of scholarship in getting a Diploma in Architecture. Thank You too for allowing me to go to Penang Bible Camp 2007 as it served as a good foundation to study Your Word more spiritually. Now, I know that I came here is to be M.A.D. – Making A Difference for CHRIST!
Just like my chicken pox vaccination, I hope that You, after the first injection of Penang Bible Camp, will give me a second booster injection here in RBS. And most important of all, I want all of the things I learn here in RBS to last throughout my stay on Earth; to be able to fight the Devil’s temptation and apply it in my life.
Besides learning from the talks of RBS, I hope I will learn more in the other activities, interactions and quiet time. Lord, help me to be humble and speak when I need to and stop me when I do not need to speak. In interactions with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope that not only I have the courage to get to know them, but also to edify them through my speech and conduct.
I know that apart from You, I can’t do anything so I ask of You today to give me strength and wisdom to go through RBS fruitfully. I volunteered myself to be assistant dorm leader and I hope that You will remind me of responsibility and build up my leadership. As for mission trips, I pray that there will always be strength to complete with the work. Assignments will stack up I know because I am a long winded writer, I am glad You are patient! I hope I will have good time management and be able to utilize time for Your glory. In times of downs, I ask for strength to endure it through the Comforter. The temperature here in Camerons is low and it is really freezing cold, I liked it but make me warm both physically and spiritually so that my spirit would not be dead cold.
Lastly, I thank You for everything: the good dormmates, nice study environment, hospitality of SAGC people during Christmas caroling, discover that Christmas is important and meaningful (I read some articles that says Christians should not celebrate birthdays because all birthdays records in the Bible are not good and it has pagan origins such as Mithras), an excellent translation – New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible and this wonderful spiritual journey I can record in this journal.
“I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Jesus Christ, is calling us.” [Philippians 3:13b-14.]
Your child,
Calvin Yong
P.S. Please improve my handwriting, You can read but it’s hard for the Principal…Thanks God!
Uncle Dex: May God honour your great contemplative desires.
To: God (Lord, I don’t think You have an email address since you are always present at any given time and place.)
Subject: Residential Bible School (RBS) 2008
Dear God, thank You for placing me in RBS 2008. I know it is definitely wasn’t a mistake You gave me the strength to overcome all the obstacles that blocked me from going to RBs such as the Taylor’s College offer of scholarship in getting a Diploma in Architecture. Thank You too for allowing me to go to Penang Bible Camp 2007 as it served as a good foundation to study Your Word more spiritually. Now, I know that I came here is to be M.A.D. – Making A Difference for CHRIST!
Just like my chicken pox vaccination, I hope that You, after the first injection of Penang Bible Camp, will give me a second booster injection here in RBS. And most important of all, I want all of the things I learn here in RBS to last throughout my stay on Earth; to be able to fight the Devil’s temptation and apply it in my life.
Besides learning from the talks of RBS, I hope I will learn more in the other activities, interactions and quiet time. Lord, help me to be humble and speak when I need to and stop me when I do not need to speak. In interactions with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope that not only I have the courage to get to know them, but also to edify them through my speech and conduct.
I know that apart from You, I can’t do anything so I ask of You today to give me strength and wisdom to go through RBS fruitfully. I volunteered myself to be assistant dorm leader and I hope that You will remind me of responsibility and build up my leadership. As for mission trips, I pray that there will always be strength to complete with the work. Assignments will stack up I know because I am a long winded writer, I am glad You are patient! I hope I will have good time management and be able to utilize time for Your glory. In times of downs, I ask for strength to endure it through the Comforter. The temperature here in Camerons is low and it is really freezing cold, I liked it but make me warm both physically and spiritually so that my spirit would not be dead cold.
Lastly, I thank You for everything: the good dormmates, nice study environment, hospitality of SAGC people during Christmas caroling, discover that Christmas is important and meaningful (I read some articles that says Christians should not celebrate birthdays because all birthdays records in the Bible are not good and it has pagan origins such as Mithras), an excellent translation – New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible and this wonderful spiritual journey I can record in this journal.
“I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Jesus Christ, is calling us.” [Philippians 3:13b-14.]
Your child,
Calvin Yong
P.S. Please improve my handwriting, You can read but it’s hard for the Principal…Thanks God!
Uncle Dex: May God honour your great contemplative desires.
Prologue
When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.’”
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho. It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.
Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.”
Joshua 4:1-7, 19-24 [New Living Translation - NLT]
DISCLAIMER:
This blog is a journal of what God has done in my life, and I felt that by posting them here, people who read it would felt encouraged. Certain names of people have been submitted by initials that by no means actually representing the persons' initials. RBS people need not to worry, all things that are supposed to be bounded at the four walls of HCC and four walls of Dorm 4 will not be here. This blog is not intended to be a stumbling block to anyone instead an encouragement and perhaps a recap of great things God has done in the many lives of RBS 2008 people. Pre-RBS people can read this blog...this blog doesn't not tell you too much of the details...for what words can describe of RBS is just the tip on an iceberg...so is with God's love for us. You won't lose the experience, our God is a creative Creator, every RBS is different. SO, LET'S PRAISE GOD FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE!
P.S. For those who felt that certain material shouldn't be here, please email me at yongzehao[at]hotmail.com. I will reconsider the stuff I placed here.
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho. It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.
Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.”
Joshua 4:1-7, 19-24 [New Living Translation - NLT]
DISCLAIMER:
This blog is a journal of what God has done in my life, and I felt that by posting them here, people who read it would felt encouraged. Certain names of people have been submitted by initials that by no means actually representing the persons' initials. RBS people need not to worry, all things that are supposed to be bounded at the four walls of HCC and four walls of Dorm 4 will not be here. This blog is not intended to be a stumbling block to anyone instead an encouragement and perhaps a recap of great things God has done in the many lives of RBS 2008 people. Pre-RBS people can read this blog...this blog doesn't not tell you too much of the details...for what words can describe of RBS is just the tip on an iceberg...so is with God's love for us. You won't lose the experience, our God is a creative Creator, every RBS is different. SO, LET'S PRAISE GOD FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE!
P.S. For those who felt that certain material shouldn't be here, please email me at yongzehao[at]hotmail.com. I will reconsider the stuff I placed here.
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