my firm foundation.

Jesus you're my firm foundation
in You i can stand secure,
Jesus you're my firm foundation
i put my trust in Your holy word
i put my trust in Your holy word.

***

consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. - ephesians 2:19-21.

today, i thank.

today i thank You for my ten fingers and ten toes. short and stubby as they might be, i thank You that each of them works well. i can type on my keyboard. hold a pencil. play the piano.

today i thank You for my eyes which help me see. even though i need to wear glasses, Lord, i won't complain because i still get to appreciate the beauty of the world around me. the changing colours of the sky. flowers. buildings. butterflies.

today i thank You for my legs which help me to walk, run, jump, play, and in general, get around. so what if my right leg is weaker than my left leg, and even is a little weaker? i don't need crutches or a wheelchair to get around, and that is something to thank You for.

today i thank You for my ears which work and allow me to listen to so many lovely sounds - music playing, birds chirping, friends laughing, the doorbell ringing. i don't need hearing aids, and surely i mustn't take this for granted, Lord.

today i thank You for creating each part of me. whether it functions 100% properly or not. because You're the master creator, the greatest artist who ever lived and ever will live. and today i sit here and remember the One who crafted me. today i sit here and give thanks because i'm Your creation. made in Your image. what could be more beautiful?

so even though i may struggle with dissatisfaction...thinking my eyes are too small, my nose is too flat, my hair is too wild, remind me that i am made in Your image, that You created me...and therefore, i'm beautiful.

a jealous kind of love.

1 samuel 5:1-3 records this story:
after the philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from ebenezer to ashdod. then they carried the ark into dagon's temple and set it beside dagon. when the people of ashdod rose early the next day, there was dagon, fallen with his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!

imagine, the philistines, the enemy of israel, capture the ark of the covenant, the most precious thing to the israelites. they carry it as a trophy back to their city and give it in a spot of honour in the temple belonging to dagon, their idol, their god.

the next day, they wake up to worship and greet their idol, and there his statue is, lying face down before the ark of God.

if even an idol is forced to bow face down to God, what more me, what more us?
if even an idol is forced in its own temple to pay homage to the God Almighty, what more us?

God is unable to face competition. He wants to win our hearts and trust me, He's not happy when something else competes with Him for our attention. what He wants is our undivided love and devotion to Him.

the love of God is a jealous kind of love. but jealous here isn't the negative sort of jealousy we usually think of when we see the word. God's jealous of anything that takes us away from Him. God's jealous of anything that makes Him less important to us, His beloved children.

simply put, God doesn't want you to make Him share heart space with anything else...be it a relationship, work, academia, or whatever. and the basis for this is equally simple - it's love. He loves you so much, He cares for you so much. and He knows that if you don't devote yourself to Him with all you have and all you are, you're treading on choppy waters.

don't see God's jealous love as something selfish or negative. see it in a different light. if He doesn't love you, He wouldn't have gone through the heartache of watching His only son die on a cross, bearing all sin and shame so that we could reconcile with Him.

He only wants you to love Him in return with with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength. not some, but all...everything.

God's jealous for your heart, because He loves you. He loves you too much to think and act otherwise. will you respond by loving Him in return with your all, or are you going to turn the other way and attempt to make Him share your heart with something or someone else?

why we pray.

james 4:3 says - you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

this verse jumps out at me from my devotional passage today. it makes me think about why i must spend time in prayer, the motivation behind my prayer.

i probably don't need to define prayer. or do i? prayer to me, is communicating with God, building up a relationship with Him. it's a form of worship because i praise His name. it's a form of thanksgiving because i thank Him for His grace, mercy and love which is poured into my life though i never deserve it. it's when i articulate to Him my woes and worries, and ask Him for help. even though God knows it all before me, it's how i show Him i trust Him and i want to deepen my relationship with Him.

but sometimes i slip into this mode we all slip into at times. and i start to treat God like a genie from a lamp who can grant my every wish. it is true that God is capable of anything, ok, everything. so why does He not give me something i want really badly?

the verse that jumped out at me has the answer.

why do i ask for something? what's the motive behind it? am i asking God for something i want for selfish reasons, something that benefits me and me alone, that is not what He wants for my life? if so, then yes. and i'll readily admit to praying for all the wrong reasons at times. i'll readily admit that there have been times when i asked God for something because i wanted it for selfish reasons, and no, i didn't get whatever i wanted.

see, i believe God is awesomely generous. that's why He gave His son to die for us on a cross. but at the same time, when i say i submit to God, it means that i want His will to play out in my life. when i pray with a selfish motive, what i'm doing is trying to work my own will into God's. and that's clearly not what we should be doing. that means, i'm distorting the very purpose of prayer.

prayer, as greg laurie writes, is not getting my will in heaven; it's getting God's will on earth. prayer is not trying to convince God to do what i want Him to do,; it's a process that i go through in which i learn the will of God and live accordingly.

let's remember this each time we go to God in prayer, that through this intimate communion with God, we keep Him in focus, we continually pray with the right motives - for God's will to work out on earth, and not for our own selfish gain and benefit.

of mommies.

she was the first to know me, aside from God. He formed me by the miracle of conception and i lived for nine months in her womb. she felt my every kick, movement, and gave thanks for the tiny life blooming within her. i cannot imagine the joy of each ultrasound scan, when she saw my body being formed. i cannot imagine the joy of holding me in her arms for the first time.

she is the woman who stayed up late to feed and sing to a fussing baby. she is the woman who potty-trained me and forced me to eat my spinach. she is the woman who hugged me and still hugs me when i cry. she is the woman who has slapped me when i did something hurtful. yet, she is the woman who worries and stays up late when i get home late.

she is the woman who sacrifices extra hours in the office just so she can give her non-driving daughter a lift home. she is the woman who hides veggies in spaghetti sauce just so we'd get some extra fibre in our diet. she is the woman who makes sure i have enough allowance, clothes to wear and a roof over my head.

she is the woman who's known me for nearly twenty one years and who loves me despite all the hurtful things i have told her, all the actions which communicated distrust and hatred. she is the woman who believes in me, and tells me it is okay even though i may have gotten absolutely rotten grades.

but most of all, she is the woman who has taught me to trust in the Lord above all else. who decided to dedicate her then 8-year-old daughter to the Lord, just as hannah dedicated her son, samuel to God. she is the woman who constantly prays for her family and children, who has indeed brought up a young lady and young man in a way pleasing to God. she has taught her children to fear God, to love God and to put Him above all else.

this wonderful woman, is none other than my mommy.

it's mother's day today and while it is really a silly commercialized holiday in many ways, today i was reminded that even Jesus, on the cross, the sins of the world weighing down on his beaten and broken shoulders, still asked His disciple to take care of his mother. what more me, what more us?

and should i ever become a mother (though if humanly possible, i really hope not), i want to raise my children the way my mother raised my brother and i. to love the Lord our God above everything else and to trust in Him no matter the circumstance, and to always praise Him above all else.

but now, i thank God for my mommy.

out with the old.

somebody i know will be getting baptised later. it is truly a joyous occasion to publicly declare one's faith and let people around know that a life has been changed and is being changed by God.

i used this verse to create the card for him:
romans 6:6-7: our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. for he who died has been freed from sin.

don't you just love the idea that when we first believed in Christ, our old man died. it's like a process of metamorphosis - shedding the old, donning the new. i don't know about you, but i love this.

the beautiful thing is that our old, sinful selves die, and it is through this death that we truly gain freedom. freedom from the shackles of sin. a renewed perspective of life. a new, unchanging purpose for living. the start of a brand new growth process, maturation and change.

even though i used this verse for the occasion of a baptism, it reminded me of my decision to follow Jesus. it reminded me of the process that goes on day by day as i walk with God. the decision that is tough to follow through sometimes, but i'll never regret.

You created.

my grandmother was warded at NUH after collapsing at home. thankfully it is nothing too major, as she was found to be anemic. but i think she'll have to stay a day or two more.

anyway since there were no beds in the medical wards, the hospital got her bed in the gynae ward, where all the moms who just gave birth are warded. right outside her room is the nursery where all the little babies are.

first, i must admit that i'm NOT A FAN of newborns. to me, they all look the same, especially when wrapped in those blankets the hospital issues. the same, just with varying amounts of hair and varying skin tones.

strangely, i was reminded of one of my favourite psalms, psalm 139.

especially this part of the psalm, verses 13-16:

For You created my inmost being
You knit me together in my mother's womb
I praise You because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made
Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from You
When I was made in the secret pace
When I was woven together in the depth of the earth
Your eyes saw my unformed body
All the days ordained for me
Were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

what a beautiful picture is painted here. when i read it again as i was typing it out, i suddenly had this mental image of an artist, a sculptor, weaving together a form. but not just any form made of clay or marble or anything like that - a living, breathing form.

my God is a wonderful and creative God. when i look at each one of those little babies, i remember that each is a tiny human, created and knit together by the Father. wonderfully made. each toe, each fingernail, each strand of hair, each cell, gene, chromosome. that truly rivals the work of even the greatest sculptors on earth, it's much more creative than anything picasso or van gogh could dream up and put on canvas. '

i love the fact that the word used is "fearfully" made. it makes me think that God was very careful when He created me, when He created You. paying attention to each minute detail, right down to the placement of each eyelash, each toenail, every single little thing. indeed, He's the master craftsman, the artist like no other!

each life, a miracle crafted by the Creator God. each life, truly a work of art comparable to no other. surely this is something so beautiful, so amazing, that it can only be attributed to one Artist - the Lord God Himself.