Saturday, August 25, 2007

Faith..

Was looking through my diary and I found something interesting....

Faith is just like a muscle in our body. If we do not exercise, the muscle will be weak and slowly it might turn to fat. On the other hand, if we were to be hardworking and exercise, the muscle will be strong and firm.

How often then do you exercise your faith? There are a lot of trials in life... I have no doubt on that, but am I standing up for Jesus and live a holy life as Jesus is holy? Alot of things are not under my control nor under my decisions, I just pray that I can glorify Him with my life... I am really tired but may He grant me much strength to hold on...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure when is the last time i put a comment in your bloggie.. Reading this post made me miss my old self(physically).. skinny.. T.T need to exercise more.. haha! anyways.. gambatte.. Keep strong in faith that God will lead ya.. ^^

Shan Shang said...

o.O 4 STH IN THE MORNING???? Wah.... i didnt know you stay in NYC... Time zone so darn different... Or is it you wake up so early to go for a jog? ^^ Hahah...

Hahaha... No need miss your old self, gain it back by exercise then hahaha.. GAmbateh~~~

Yeah God will always lead, but may my heart not be harden to follow... >.<

Anonymous said...

hahaha!! could not sleep.. so went and visit your blog lor... i jog in the evening one.. hehehe!!

Gain back hard lor.. i just came back from jogging.. feel like dying.. T.T

submit submit.. only thing to do.. ^^

~eLLa~ said...

Dear Shan Shang,
Thanks for reminding me that I should be studying His words rather than looking for His signs.
Part of the reason that I was doing this is that I know very sure I should preach the gospel to those who haven't heard of it. But what worries me is whether India is really my destination according to His will. My church has been sending people to the Philippines, Thailand, India and Vietnam to plant churches and rehabilitation centres. Where there are the poor and drug addicts, where people will be sent to.
I'm most afraid of the possibility that I 'saw' India as my calling just out of my affection to someone who is going to India. Very dangerous, right? If that's the case, God didn't send me to India. Instead, I chose India for non-godly reasons. If one day,I got upset in India, what would happen then? Regret the good old days when I was still in HK, enjoying comfortable living with a stable income? Or feel awful about myself and blame God for everything?
I know how easy it is for me to kick off being charged with passion, then when I stumble, I would grumble and get frustrated and depressed.
This is why I've been behaving like Gideon who asked for signs. If it's God who has appointed me, I know He would have a way to help me go through all the difficulties and trials and deliver me in any situations.
I do doube myself whether it's correct to ask for signs but I know no better ways at the moment.
But you are definitely right in one thing, which is I need to study the bible. I'm planning to study the stories of some bible characters, especially those who have been called. I've always liked the story of Jonah (- our God is a humourous and wise god) but I would go into more.
Any recommendations for my 'muscles'?
School work starts tomorrow. Need to work hard for tomorrow's meeting now. Bye for now.

Love,
Echo @HK

Anonymous said...

This might be out of place, and I dont leave comments much... but I was reminded of a recent conversation with someone who made the very same comments as 'echo' and want to share the gist of the conversation:

The Christian life is one of daily flexing and exercising of the muscle called faith, in our decisions and reactions to things in our life (study, work, play time, family, etc.) Every single action is an avenue of worship to God as we seek to do 'according to God's Will'. It is true that few (very few) will see these actions and the daily submission of all things to God, but God sees it. What is seen by others around us will bear testimony of our Faith (evangelism) and if the Spirit so works, convicts their conscience and they will give glory to God (Matthew 5: 16). The only way to be so enraptured with God and our daily lives is to delve deeply into His Word for us. To drink deep and eat heartily from it. :)

Missionary life and calling. Few biblical principles should guide our understanding and decision of knowing God's Call & Will; church, desire and life.

Church: Missionaries must be sent from a church and the church should recognise the gifts of the applicant. The elders must recognise and be sure that the applicant is fit and has the proper qualifications to be one.

Desire: Often this is the easiest qualification, since the applicant would have a necessary burden for a particular people group. And the desire is not only for a moment, but is something that is sustained. I cannot emphasis how important it is to have a sustained desire that does not turn back to the world. (Luke 9:62)

Life: If the applicant is never known as a local missionary, then the person is self disqualifying him/herself. A missionary to a foreign land has to be a missionary where he/she is for the Great Commission is binding to all Christians. The best missionary pair recorded is Paul and Barnabas. They were not called immediately to the Gentiles but upon conversion started among the Jews. The early church too evangelised locally, and their missionary vision came during persecution. This is the hardest test but a necessary one to see whether a person is really called to this special work. God will not 'call' a person to commit their lives to a people group unless the person has been faithful for the little that has been given to them first. :)

Enough rambling from me. God bless all.

Shan Shang said...

Long long comments frm everyone... Thanks for dropping by =)

Mike: Determination.... >.< I am learning that as well.. TO WAKE UP EARLY so that I have more time to read some books. Gambateh together yo!! Jia You!!! Aja, aje fighting!~~

Echo: Emmm.... Own desires is not == God's calling... It is God's wills and not our own will to be done. If so, why bother reading the bible as all your actions are lead by your heart and not from God? Pray much that God will lead you back to Him...

I know it is difficult to kill your own desires as I myself am struggling now as well but always keep in mind that if we continue on to live in a sinful life, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:16- 21)Persevere on...

EL: remind me of YF where we talked about the muscle story ^^ Thanks for sharing yo.. ^^

Anonymous said...

El, thanks for your sharing! Very helpful! And I've noticed that is also the practice my church has been doing. So I'm pretty sure about what's happening next if I'm called for missionary work. -There's going to be a long preparation period.
Thanks again and I'll bear it in mind.
Bless!

Anonymous said...

Dropped in by just simply browsing through your blog and curious at your "7 comments!" :D

Just wanted to comment that, (the same conversation we've had on this topic before on the other day:p) how easy we are to naturally assume that our will is God's will.

No, many of us did not let God's will to regulate our will as how Romans 12:2 commanded of us.

We thought we are but instead, we are actually letting our will to regulate God's will. Whichever, whenever and wherever we see something fits into our will, we many times mistakenly think that it be God's will. Otherwise, it must not be God's will.

May God spares us all from the latter deception. Let God, His Will ALONE which has already revealed to us in His Word TRULY be the center of our lives. Let no others (not even our own desires) take His Supreme Place in our lives (Ex 20:3).

Let us never be too quick to rush into something and call that God's Will, God has His time to reveal to each of us according to his good, pleasing and perfect Will. Meanwhile, let us be patience in the Lord, be very patience.... (Ps 27:14)

"A Christian is not of hasty growth, like a mushroom, but rather like an oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a great deep-rooted tree." (by Newton, J.)