the purpose driven life
day 25
tansformed by trouble
" it is the fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of Godliness." - madame guyon
God uses circumstances to develop our character
God uses problems to draw you closer to himself.
"the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." - psalm 34:18
Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will most likely be in your darkest days - when your hear is broken and you feel abandoned, the pain is great and you're our of options and you turn to God alone. it is during our suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest prayers.
"when life is rosy, we may slide by with knowing about Jesus by imitating Him and speaking about Him. but only in suffering will we KNOW Jesus." - joni eareckson tada
everything that happens to a child of God is
Father-flitered, and he intends to use it for good even when Satan and others mean it for bad.
Romans 8:28 :
"we know" - our hope in difficult times is a certainty based on the truths that God is in complete comtrol and he loves us
"that God causes" - God never makes a mistake
"everything" - all. God can bring the good out of the worst evil. He did at Calvary. :)
"to work together"
like baking a cake! wouldn't be nice eating the raw eggs and flour etc. but well, after baking, the cake will be like...yumyum! (i like cream!) if you give God all your distasteful, unpleasant experiences, He will blend them together for good.
"for the good" - much of what happens in our world is evil and bad, but God specializes in bringing the good out of it (amen!)
"of those who love Him and are called" - this promise is for God's children
"according to His purpose" - which is to be like his son
building Christlike character :
every problem is a character-building opportunity. the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fibre! :)
when you've been refined by trials, pple can see Jesus in you
since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through : loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection etc.
hebrews 5:8-9 " (Jesus)...learned obedience through suffering (and) was made perfect through suffering)"
responding to problems as Jesus would :
remember that God's plan is good (jeremiah 29:11)
- eg. joseph - "you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done." - genesis 50:20
- hebrews 12:10b "God disciplines us for good that we may share in His holiness."
- corrie ten boom : "if you look at the world, you'll be distressed. if you look within, you will be depressed. but if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest!"
rejoice and give thanks
- 1 thes 5:16-18 (worship team's theme verse!) "give thanks IN all circumstances." not "for all circumstances".
refuse to give up
- be patient and persistent!
you know you're maturing when you begin to see the hand of God in random, seemingly pointless, baffling circumstances of life.
don't give up. grow up!
the end.
these lessons come so so so at the right time man. ok. not always for me, but for pple around me. like, whoa~
was at borders for a while today and saw joshua. where he brought me to bistro there to meet my future seniors. ok. i felt kinda weird. but they seem nice :) the table's at bistro have mahjong paper! so you can just like, doodle on the table! i like! haha...i used to draw on the tissue paper..
went jogging with chinsiew today. i jogged like, half the time she jogged only. but well, i did jog. and stretched. i didn't know stretching could get so tiring... haha]
"if you're a christian in the small things, you'll never be a small christian"-stuart briscoe
this is a very very good quote. small things like, lying or thinking bad thoughts...stuff like that that seem so trivial and little that even if we do it, it's ok. but actually, it's because it's so trivial, and pple don't care about it, it's uh well, smtg like...hard to care about it. that's what makes it so uh...important? yah. smtg like that :)))
to Jesus : thank you
God is good
there is so much around us to be thankful for. ah. just look around. and be more optimistic. whee. like, ah. i think i felt some kind of undescribable joy yesterday. refreshing. i don't know why. but well, God works in amazing ways. :)
was at the top of a little hill just now after i jogged and i looked up above in front of me and saw a nice nice sky. ah. how i love the sky :) the sun was setting. beautiful colour man. like, red, orange, pink, violet, grey, blue. ahhhh. :))) and then i continued walking, and the sun's round face got blocked. but there was still light :) so i thought....sometimes, we can't see God. like, we can't feel him (stuff like that) and so we think he's not there. but actually he is. and then...
ok. i can't continue writing about this. this kinda stuff ah. i'm only good at thinking it. if i say out loud, write it down, i get a bit...blur. haha...
think good thoughts!
lunch date with sandy and jeremy tmr. hmm...
day 25
tansformed by trouble
" it is the fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of Godliness." - madame guyon
God uses circumstances to develop our character
God uses problems to draw you closer to himself.
"the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." - psalm 34:18
Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will most likely be in your darkest days - when your hear is broken and you feel abandoned, the pain is great and you're our of options and you turn to God alone. it is during our suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest prayers.
"when life is rosy, we may slide by with knowing about Jesus by imitating Him and speaking about Him. but only in suffering will we KNOW Jesus." - joni eareckson tada
everything that happens to a child of God is
Father-flitered, and he intends to use it for good even when Satan and others mean it for bad.
Romans 8:28 :
"we know" - our hope in difficult times is a certainty based on the truths that God is in complete comtrol and he loves us
"that God causes" - God never makes a mistake
"everything" - all. God can bring the good out of the worst evil. He did at Calvary. :)
"to work together"
like baking a cake! wouldn't be nice eating the raw eggs and flour etc. but well, after baking, the cake will be like...yumyum! (i like cream!) if you give God all your distasteful, unpleasant experiences, He will blend them together for good.
"for the good" - much of what happens in our world is evil and bad, but God specializes in bringing the good out of it (amen!)
"of those who love Him and are called" - this promise is for God's children
"according to His purpose" - which is to be like his son
building Christlike character :
every problem is a character-building opportunity. the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fibre! :)
when you've been refined by trials, pple can see Jesus in you
since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through : loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection etc.
hebrews 5:8-9 " (Jesus)...learned obedience through suffering (and) was made perfect through suffering)"
responding to problems as Jesus would :
remember that God's plan is good (jeremiah 29:11)
- eg. joseph - "you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done." - genesis 50:20
- hebrews 12:10b "God disciplines us for good that we may share in His holiness."
- corrie ten boom : "if you look at the world, you'll be distressed. if you look within, you will be depressed. but if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest!"
rejoice and give thanks
- 1 thes 5:16-18 (worship team's theme verse!) "give thanks IN all circumstances." not "for all circumstances".
refuse to give up
- be patient and persistent!
you know you're maturing when you begin to see the hand of God in random, seemingly pointless, baffling circumstances of life.
don't give up. grow up!
the end.
these lessons come so so so at the right time man. ok. not always for me, but for pple around me. like, whoa~
was at borders for a while today and saw joshua. where he brought me to bistro there to meet my future seniors. ok. i felt kinda weird. but they seem nice :) the table's at bistro have mahjong paper! so you can just like, doodle on the table! i like! haha...i used to draw on the tissue paper..
went jogging with chinsiew today. i jogged like, half the time she jogged only. but well, i did jog. and stretched. i didn't know stretching could get so tiring... haha]
"if you're a christian in the small things, you'll never be a small christian"-stuart briscoe
this is a very very good quote. small things like, lying or thinking bad thoughts...stuff like that that seem so trivial and little that even if we do it, it's ok. but actually, it's because it's so trivial, and pple don't care about it, it's uh well, smtg like...hard to care about it. that's what makes it so uh...important? yah. smtg like that :)))
to Jesus : thank you
God is good
there is so much around us to be thankful for. ah. just look around. and be more optimistic. whee. like, ah. i think i felt some kind of undescribable joy yesterday. refreshing. i don't know why. but well, God works in amazing ways. :)
was at the top of a little hill just now after i jogged and i looked up above in front of me and saw a nice nice sky. ah. how i love the sky :) the sun was setting. beautiful colour man. like, red, orange, pink, violet, grey, blue. ahhhh. :))) and then i continued walking, and the sun's round face got blocked. but there was still light :) so i thought....sometimes, we can't see God. like, we can't feel him (stuff like that) and so we think he's not there. but actually he is. and then...
ok. i can't continue writing about this. this kinda stuff ah. i'm only good at thinking it. if i say out loud, write it down, i get a bit...blur. haha...
think good thoughts!
lunch date with sandy and jeremy tmr. hmm...
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