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Week 3 . Day 4

1) Find images which represents your relation with god.
Pardon the quality, it's print screen. this image is essentially text and Draco Malfoy from A Very Potter Sequel. this is the cleanest and most entertaining one i've got.
credits go to Tumblr and gimmemyfirebolt of tumblr.

if you squint real hard, the texts basically go:

My name may not be Luna but I sure know how to Lovegood! :)

Did you survive Avada Kedavra? 'Cause you're drop dead gorgeous.

Not even Veritaserum could make me express how much I'm truly attracted to you. :)

I can be your house elf. I'll do whatever you want and I don't need any clothes.


Yes, have you smacked your forehead red yet? They're Potter pick up lines.

Pick up lines. Pick up lines to me are a flattering but useless form of flirtation.
Pick up lines can mainly be found or heard in a bar or somewhere sleazy, like a bar. BAAAAAAARh.. Heh. They can also be found a LOT in cyberspace.
And when i think of that i think cyberspace reltionship. Like a cyberboyfriend. Which is totally redundant and unnecessarily a waste of time.
Cause they are nothing but empty, open relationships with no commitment whatsoever. So what, you can make use of us like a.. a... telephone? (Stop callin', stop callin', I don't wanna think anymore! I left my head and my heart on the dance floor). Yeah, i feel strongly over such things.

And yet i see myself with God like this. I flirt with God. Praise him and flatter him and know try to him. And when i feel like when the relationship is starting to deepen, i either get too complacent and not progress from there OR get scared / when the shiokness starts to wear off, I disconnect and log out.

But what's there to be afraid of?
It's God.
What is it?

My life with God was never a bed of roses. I may have thought it was but alas, twas only a dream and

-Albus Dumbledore (JK Rowling),
Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone

[to be continued...]

It will not be, Unredeemed.

One of my favorite worship songs will definitely be Unredeemed by Selah. Here is how it goes:



The cruelest world
The coldest heart
The deepest wound
The endless dark
The lonely ache
The burning tears
The bitter nights
The wasted years

Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke


And every lie that gave up hope
We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But you never know the miracle the Father has in store
Just watch and see
It will not be
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed


The lyrics are beautiful aint it? It was in the wee hours of the morning when i first heard it. Feeling rather down and rushing projects then, this song somehow comforted me, telling me not to fret over what i have on my hands then.


I think what hit me the most was the lines "But when anything that's shattered is laid before the Lord, Just watch and see it will not be unredeemed." Just a few words, but yet the message behind it is really strong; that all we have to do, is to turn to God and leave that bag of stones with Him.

Now that I know it works, here goes...

Song of the moment has been In Me by Casting Crowns for the 2 lines I had posted.

I thought that those 2 lines really summed up how much I am loved by God that He is just crazy in love with me. When I was younger, I often wondered why God made mankind, knowing that we will stray and mess up this creations with all the silly, selfish things we do? Why suffer the heartache? I figured that He was so full of love, that love overflowed and hence the want to create human. It's like how John Paul the Second could forgive, pray for and visit his assassin and how it could explain why he hugs children the way he does. When I first saw this particular photo of JP2 hugging a child, I felt it was ironic that a gentle person like him was hugging the child till what look like suffocation. But later i understood that it was the way the body respond to an overflow of love. (P.S. Will upload the photo if I find it)

Through the incessant trouble and heartache He feels for us, the beauty of God's love is revealed. He is God, He doesn't need anything from us. He thinks it, He has it. Despite us having nothing to offer, He showers us with all things beautiful, all things good and consistently pursues us. All He want is a relationship with us, to waste time with us. To love us at any cost.

I like the way the lyricist uses the word "refreshing". The idea of a new concept. The truth that God does not need me to do anything for Him really hit home a month ago. After being really jaded by what seemed to be incessant giving, those lines were much comfort. I realised that I was loved for just being me. It was not a cause-and-effect relationship. I am not loved because I did something right. I guess the implications of this love is that we must love all mankind just because they are children of God.

"How refreshing to know you don't need me, how amazing to find that you want me."

-KEY

How refreshing to know You don't need me
How amazing to find that you want me

In Me - Casting Crowns

God's Love

WEEK 2 . DAY 3 & 4




This video's perfect. i was finding for two seperate songs but by only God knows how it happened, both topics came out in the same video. Yays!

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wk 2 . day 3
1) Think of your favourite worship song and jot down a verse or chorus that you find most meaningful (ok, so i dont have the book right beside me now but i'm rephrasing it and typing from whatever goldfish memory i have =3) :


All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me

Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

.
.
.

2) Illustrate what you think God is trying to convey to you through this song. And how can you love others because of this love?

((er, i'll get it scanned.... or probably show it to you guys on the 21st Jan, Fri.))

In a more literal form, I chose this songs coz out of my massive database of 15 songs, this one really called out to me. It could have been the music. It could have been how he sung it. It could be how it's composed. But it called out to me nonetheless. A tear trickled down my cheek when i heard it. YES! THAT DRAMA. Anyways, this was what I felt the song was telling me and how I interpreted it:

The only one that's stopping me from believeing is no one else but me alone. And like i have said before i had issues with believing and i found it so true. It sounds easy to have all my being and all my soul to believe but it isnt because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart. So in order to love him and love hom wholly, i have to take my world apart from me. Take the clouds / walls blocking me from loving and perhaps believing him.

Those were guitly tears.

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wk 2 . day 4
1) Read up on Psalm 139:1-9. What does it say about God's love?

Now I'm not a reciter of any book and can only memorise ONE line from the bible and that is 1John4 "God is Love", and that's not even a full verse. heh. So when I saw this I made a guess as hand journeyed 2m away to the bible, O God you search me and you know meeeee...?

With the bible finally opened to the right page, my face lit up. Whoo! I feel so proud of my self =D This is one of my favourite hymns and have you heard it in SATB? Well, um, you should if you haven't. The effect is haunting. Nothing like knowing that

God knows your every move

to wake you up and feel a little creeped out... in a good way =)

Drink It Up

Taking it literally, the source of water that she had used to fill her life will be the water from the well, given by Jacob. However, taking it to a deeper level, the water she has been using takes the form of desires and also, love. As we all know. love takes many form, from cosmetic love to a more heartfelt form, absolute love. I felt that the one she's been getting (and perhaps even chasing) cosmetic love, which sadly is a far cry from absolute love. Hence, she has been seeking for something more at a deeper level (explaing the 5 husbands), but her insatiable thirst has yet been quenched.

Thankfully, having met Jesus, who offered her, something more thirst quenching. Definitely more than what she's been getting -- absolute love. We see it though how she could throw away all reservations that she could have and bare her heart out to Jesus pertaining to her husbands. To think that she had just met Jesus!

Today, just like her, we suffer too, from the same insatiable thirst that she has, perhaps not in the form of love, but worldly desires. Unsatisfied are we, for the things we've been bestowed upon and perhaps, we too, may be chasing and coveting after the wrong things, the material things in life. Left unsatisfied are we, just like the samaritan woman, having 5 husbands and the man whom she lives with, is not really her husband.

The source of 'water' for the woman was relationship. She had used this to fill the void in her. She might not have realised the void in her was God's way of steering her to Him. Hence, she found God in the wrong places. This reminded me of a quote told to me by a friend: "The search of all people is for God. They may think they are looking for other things, but they must eventually admit that it is God they seek."

I feel that God's 'life-giving water' is the kind of water that renews, heals and satisfy. The kind of water that fills the void, keeps you contented, His water provides you with the confidence to go forth to do His work and live as what He calls us to when the world tells you otherwise. The kind of water that provides you with the peace only He can give.

When I read this passage, the part that stood out to me was that she said " I don't have a husband." and Jesus replied that she was telling the truth "... the man you live with now is not really your husband." I felt what these lines implied was that the woman was so tired of filling that void and yet because she could not just ignore it, she settled for second best. Like her, I once and am still tempted every now and then to just 'settle', to believe that 'that is the best I could go',to give up searching for the 'life-giving water' and to buy into the lies. The woman found Jesus when she was at her 'darkest' like her, more often then not, I get reminded by God's love most when I'm in trouble. I'm really drawn to how straight forward she was with Jesus. She was a woman who was living with a man who was not her husband. I'm very sure that concept was frowned upon, she was probably seen as a loose woman. However, she trusted Jesus enough to tell Him the truth without letting pride and shame get in the way. Maybe that's what we can think about when we go for confession and say our daily prayers. Maybe that's what we need to do for people, to be Jesus to them, to love and not to judge.

P.S. Thanks Bel and Dav for the blog! Great choice of background picture, glad you girls didn't use a "holy" picture if you get my drift. Could we have a tagboard? Wait, do people still use tagboard? It has been ages since I blogged. I think a tagboard of some sort could facilitate 'commenting' and that would be good because we get feedback fast hence we are more motivated to comment and blog, resulting in a positive environment and soon we will have a farm of cute pink fluffy unicorns :)

-KEY

living water

The woman had used normal water for her whole life untill Jesus talked to her at the well, and offered her the living water. Just like the woman, God offers us with many opportunities in every thing we do. We can be very doubtful and demanding at times, just like the woman, she was doubtful and demanding.

So we should pray for God to help us in every ups and downs we go through. We must also thank the lord at the end of the day for what he has done for us. He is the one that offers us with living water but in times we reject and we may be very doubtful. So we need to thank him and say sorry for every rejection/wrong things we have done to him.

- Martin Aloysius

Living Waters

I felt that the Samaritan woman had tried to use relationships to quench her thirst, her life desires and while that did not work out, she still continued trying. While it never stated if her relationships were good or bad, I would say that it was not enough for her as something was still missing and she used another relationship to quench that thirst. And again that lasted only a short time.

The living water to me was truth and the Holy Spirit. I was once told that the love between the Father and Jesus was manifested in the Holy Spirit and thus that is our guide to living our faith, to live with the same love Jesus and God the Father had. To be able to love ourselves and to allow ourselves to be loved and in return to love others is really living water for me. If we focus on Jesus message to truely love, then our wants and needs take a back seat to actual love. But to love in such a way is really difficult.

I think my life is pretty parallel to the Samaritan woman's life. I do what I want alot of the times. I look for answers in the wrong places. I hide from the truth and do not put God in my everyday decisions. I sometimes also do not accept the love of the people around me and the love of God.

- DW