Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Potter's Touch

You made us
You see the finished work
From the pile of clay
Bringing beauty 
Out of Your love
You are the potter 
We are the clay
Fill us with the life and light of Christ
We yield to You
Come in Your love
Come in Your power
Bring wholeness and fullness
Speak life into our mortal being
Bring hope in our darkest hour
Lord, do a deep and a lasting work in us
Touch our hearts
Transform us
By the power of Your Spirit

Monday, December 30, 2013

We are Only Passing Through

We have set on heart on pilgrimage
With unwavering commitment
We offer our life to You
Our dreams
Our hopes
Our aspirations
Our desires
We give them all to You
Lord, do a deep and a lasting work in us
Help us to see Your purposes
Help us to know Your will
Help us to hear Your voice
We lay our life at Your altar
We run after You
To seek Your face
To see Your hand of love
To touch the hem of Your garment
To hear Your heart
Lord, we are on pilgrimage
This world is not our home
We are only passing through

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Steamboat with Our Family

Last evening, my family came over to our home for steamboat. Monte prepared dinner. This afternoon, I had to bring my mother for a medical appointment and Monte spent hours to prepare for the dinner. He cooked up a storm. We had chicken, pork, carrots, tomatoes, button mushroom, eggs, fish balls, Bak Choy and cabbage. We had steamboat with fragrant Thai rice. The dinner was so scrumptious. Cooking for people is a labour of love. God has blessed me with a wonderful and loving husband. 

The dinner was one of the ways to tell my family that we appreciate them. On their end, I saw that my family deeply appreciated the dinner invitation. God is good.


Friday, December 27, 2013

Scaling New Heights

You have given us feet of deer
To scale new heights
To climb new mountains
You lead us in victory

From faith to faith
From glory to glory
When we reach the summit
All we see is Your glory

Your strength
Your might
Your dominion
Enable us to take one baby step at a time

Trusting in You in full faith
Though we do not see
We believe
Though the odds are against us
We persevere
For You are ever faithful
To see that we reach our destination

We see Your face
We feel Your hand of love
We see the sign of Your goodness
We behold You in Your glory and beauty

Thursday, December 26, 2013

God Speaks to Us Through the Waves

Last evening, as Monte and I sat on the beach, we enjoyed every moment of that precious time. We love to hear the sound of waves.  It is calming, soothing and wonderful.  

God speaks to us in different ways.  Very often, He comes through to us through His creation. 
 
Everything He created draw us to Him; to the gentle nudge of His love, to His loving embrace, to His mercy and grace.  God works in wonderful ways. 

As we offer our self to Him, He will never short-change us.  He lavishes His love on all who purpose in their heart to seek and love Him.

(Blog posting made on 26 December 2013 at Jee Fong's Corner.)

In a Morning Like this

In a morning like this
We come humbly before You

King of kings
And Lord of lords

We see the smallness of our strength
We feel the feebleness of our knees
We are vulnerable

We lean on the arms of Jesus
We cry out to You our maker

We declare our everlasting love for You
Touch us 
Mould us
And make us more like You
We love You

Lovely Evening at the Beach

Yesterday evening, Monte and I were at the East Coast Park. We have barbecue chicken, button mushrooms, pita bread, baked beans and cherry tomatoes for dinner. Simple pleasure in life. The simple things are the most precious things in life.

After dinner, we laid on the beach and enjoyed the awesome view and the sound of the waves as they hit the shoreline.

Count Our Blessings

We count our blessings
Your abiding presence
The body of Christ
Family
Friends
Ministry
Career
Home
Health
The list goes on
Teach us to be mindful of You
To count our abundant blessings
That flow from above
Every good gift 
You have blessed us 
Is treasured in our heart
Every blessing 
You have poured into our life
Is Your sovereign 
And divine providence

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

We Give You Our All

This Christmas morning
We come bearing gifts to You
Our gratitude
Our heartfelt appreciation
Our worship
We give You our all
We offer our live anew and afresh 
To our only God and Father
Our helper
Our refuge
Our stronghold
Our fortress
Our hope
The eternal God who reigns 
Through all eternity
This Christmas morning
We declare our everlasting love for You
Our maker
Our redeemer
Our lover
Lord, we pour our heart out to You
We sing the song of the redeemed
We dance with all our might
With sounds of rejoicing
We cannot contain our joy
We worship You with all of our heart

Monday, December 23, 2013

Soften Our Heart

Soften our heart, Lord
We long to hear Your voice
We long to see Your glory 
We long to taste Your goodness

Soften our heart, Lord
Melt us with Your love
Embrace us in Your bosom
Touch us, today
So that we will hear Your heart cry
We will see Your purpose and will
Grant us sensitivity to Your Spirit
Draw us by Your Spirit
Conquer us relentlessly by Your love

Soften our heart 
We enthrone You 
We give You the preeminence
We give You everything
Fill our heart with Your abiding presence

Hear Our Cry

Lord, You hear our cry for mercy
You bring relief and release
You deliver and rescue us
When our heart is dry
Your living water flood our soul 
When we are hungry
Your manna fill us up
All sufficient one
All powerful
All knowing
Almighty God
We cry out to You
The one who deserves all honour
All glory
All praise
Be exalted, O Lord

Saturday, December 21, 2013

He is the Reason for the Season

Jesus is the reason for the season
It's got nothing to do with Santa Claus
Rudolf the red nose
Snow men
Jingle bells
Christmas trees
Mistletoe
Pretty lights
Glittering tinsels
He is the reason for the season
We celebrate Jesus during Christmas
And every moment of the day
We celebrate the birth of Jesus
Because He gives us purpose for living
Our destiny is in Him
He makes our life beautiful
For He is the reason for the season
And the purpose of it all

Friday, December 20, 2013

Flow Through Us

Ministry takes place when we reach out to touch someone's life.  God is raising a nameless and faceless people who are not concerned with titles.  All they desire to do is to love and serve in whatever manner the Lord desires to do in and through their life and ministry.

Down the corridors of time, we have witnessed and read stories of people of lowly estate.  Illiterate, insignificant, simple but Godly people who minister in God's grace and anointing.  The Bible is full of examples of God raising up simple people; people who seemingly have very little to offer.  He brings out the gem in each unpolished stone.  He used the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

Today, the Lord is still actively working in many of our lives.  As we yield to the Potter, He brings out the best in us to touch this dying world. Broken people who need the Lord desperately.  Lord, flow powerfully through each of us as we abandon our self to You in humble submission, love and gratitude.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Salvific Motifs of Renewal Theology

Monte and I thank God for ministry opportunities.  Recently, Monte was asked to contribute to a blog post for Renewal Dynamics, Regent University School of Divinity.  The link below will lead you to the post.

We continue to allow the Lord to lead and guide us.  In recent years, there have have some developments and opportunities that God has sovereign opened to us.  We can only stand amazed at Him

Salvific Motifs of Renewal Theology

Empower Us

You've poured in the oil and the wine
You picked us up when we were in disdain
You cleansed and made us whole again
You gave us beauty for ashes
The oil of joy for mourning
Lord, may the meditations of our heart
Be acceptable to You
Restore and renew us today
Strengthen and empower us
To live in and through You
Our heart overflow with gratitude
To Your faithfulness and goodness
All the days of our life

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Divine Providence

On 16 September Monte was invited to chair a session for the Society of Pentecostal Studies (SPS) Practical Theology Interest Group, at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.  The meeting will be held on 6-8 March, 2014 at Evangel University, Springfield, Missouri, USA. We are very thankful to the Lord for the open door.  We stepped out in faith to believe God for the finances to make the trip.  God is good, some funds came in and last night, Monte settled the registration fee and meals for the conference.  We are continuing to believe God for the funds to buy the air ticket, accommodation and transport expenses.  God is so good.  He miraculously provided for Monte's last two SPS conference in 2012 (Virginia, USA) and 2013 (Seattle, USA).  We are thankful for God's goodness and grace.  We are excited about what God is doing in our life.

Our Stories

We are always  captivated by a story. The Bible is full of stories. The power of narratives, images, imagination, and plots allow us to get into the story as it unfolds. 

Today, God is writing the story of your life and mine. The experiences, the ups and downs, everyday living, our dreams, aspirations and hopes are the fodder that go into the writing of our life stories. No experiences we have gone through is wasted. Even painful experiences enrich our lives.

As our life stories continue to emerge.  God continues to empower us daily. We live in His love and grace. We grow from strength to strength. In His love, we morph from cocoons into beautiful butterflies.  

He brings out the beauty in each of us.  He sees boundless potential and helps us to continue to grow and develop daily.  

We want to be more like Him. For when the light and life of Christ radiates, He ministers in and through our lives.

As we faithfully entrust our life completely to His lordship, God begins to unfold His purposes and plans to us.   

Someone once said that the safest place is to be in the centre of God's will. We do not want to be found in any other place other than to be in His will. We allow God to develop our individual stories. His grace is sufficient. His promises sustain us every moment of the day.
  
Lord, we turn our lives into Your hands. You are our maker and redeemer.  

We echo the words of Mary's hymn of praise to the Lord in the Magnificat. (Luke 1:46-55)

"My soul magnifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
Because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid;
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;
Because He who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is His name;
And His mercy is from generation to generation
on those who fear Him.
He has shown might with His arm,
He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and has exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has given help to Israel, his servant, mindful of His mercy
Even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever"

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Purify Us, Lord

The pure in heart shall see Your face

Come with Your refining fire, Lord
Come with Your consuming love

Come in Your power and Your strength
Come, Holy Spirit

We need Your touch today
We long to see You
We long to hear You
We long to bask in Your sweet presence

Let Your fire fall
Let Your fire consume us
To purify and sanctify us

We live to see Your glory
We live to taste Your goodness

We worship You
For You have put eternity in our hearts

Monday, December 16, 2013

We Need You More

Lord,  You sustain the weary with Your precious word. You heal the broken hearted with Your divine love. You raised the downtrodden with Your unending hope.

You speak life into the parched and dry hearts. You speak wholeness to our broken bodies.

We need You more today than yesterday. We need You more this second than the last.

Like fish that need water. Like plants that need sunlight. We need You more.

Only You

 Only You can give us total liberty
Only You can soften our hardened hearts
Only You can quench our dying thirsts

Only You can satisfy our deepest longing
Only You can bring us eternal hope 
Only You can restore our broken lives

You are the reason for our being
You are why our hearts are beating

To breathe
To thrive
To rise up again

In Your love 
In Your hope 
In You
We live and move
And have our being

You hold all things  together
From You
We gladly receive  

You and You alone 
deserve the highest praise
We magnify Your holy name

Oyu and Eliska

My niece, Eliska turned two on 9th November 2013. She is seen here with her cousin, Oyu. They are so sweet.

Fall Afresh on Us, Lord!

Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on us
Purge and cleanse us 
Sanctify and renew us
We live in You
We thirst for You
Fill us this day, Lord
Till we overflow with You
Brimming over with so much
That others around us
Will be touched by You too

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Finishing Strong

We are not racing in a 100 metres sprint. We are running in a marathon. 

God began a good work in us and He will bring it to completion. 

This race is not marked by personal glory or acclaim, but one that is peppered with God's goodness and mercy. He showers us with His kindness, hope and joy unceasingly.

It is a race marked by triumph and fulfillment in God. In this race, faithful men and women of God persevere and press into the presence of God. We desire to live in the centre of His will. 

No obstacles or challenges can stop us. Nothing will set us on the quitting mode. God is in charge of our destiny. God is in complete control.

We experience undying hope and divine grace daily. Our lives are in the hands of our loving God. 

Deep within us a fire is burning ever brighter and stronger. In the depth of our being, a cry rises up to the Lord. A cry that touches the heart of God. 

We press into His presence.  We savour His goodness. We bask in His glorious presence. 

Running the race takes on a new meaning when our sole desire is to follow hard after our maker. The lover of our soul watches over us. 

We long to see His purposes and plans unfold in our life. Our lives revolve around the Lord.

Thank you, Lord for showing us  Your patient love and  goodness.  

Thank you for doing a deep and  lasting work in us. Teach us Your ways and we will follow You till the very end. We will finish strong by Your unfailing grace and strength.

Friday, December 13, 2013

We Serve a Mighty God

We serve a mighty God
Even the wind and the waves obey Him
Boundless
Matchless
Infinite
Immortal
Changeless
On bended knee we bow
With broken heart and spirit we surrender
We serve a mighty Saviour 
Ever faithful and true