Times of refreshing

I love this song, it goes like this:

Times of refreshing,
here in Your presence,
no greater blessings,
than being with you,
my soul is restore,
my mind is renew,
there's no greater joy Lord,
than being with you.

I got to sing this song again in the church camp recently. I'm so blessed, I am to retreat, forget myself and open my hearts to receive God's words. For the past 3 days I was like up the mountain, reconnecting with God again. Through this camp the Lord reminded me the importance of prayer, to come before Him in prayer at all times, in all things. I pondered when was the last time that I really spoken to God, pouring out to Him my heart's concern, it has been very long indeed. I realized most of the time I've been self-sufficient, relying on myself, my own strength, wisdom and ability to live on this earth. We pray because it's God's desire... I realized that my failure to come before Him in prayers is like my dear children failed to come to me, how would I feel if my children stop talking and sharing with me someday? That's exactly how God feel when I stop praying....

Oh Lord, teach me to pray when I'm out of words, remind me that you are not so concern over my words rather the attitude of my heart, teach me to come before you and trust in your providence, teach me to go after your heart's desire rather than my own, teach me to die to self and depend on you... in Jesus's Name I pray, Amen.

Many recommit our lifes and commitment to the Lord during the camp. Many walls have been broken and much tears have been shed. All glory given to God.

Time with God

It has been quite some time since I update this blog, not because God is not doing anything in my life, He is very much alive. One of my desire for this year is to spend more quality time with the Lord, so for the past one week I've been doing my devotion in the office with the on-line Daily Bread. This time around I took the time to write the lesson of the day down, say a prayer before I start my day, I hope to keep this discipline because when I touched home, it seems hard to find time on my own, time would be spent with the children. I also know I should reserve the best for God because God gave His most precious son for me, sometimes I'm being swallowed with the worry and busyness of day to day activities and God was being pushed aside. God is gracious, no matter how far we are from Him at times, He is always near and ready to accept us. Thank you Father for your unconditional love.

God is good, all the time

I prayed for more time to the Lord when I heard mom was admitted to ICU on the 17th Feb morning, more time for me to lead her to Christ and an opportunity for mom to respond to the gospel once again. God is good and gracious, mom received Christ on the 17th Feb approximately 12.00 noon if I recalled correctly, she even asked to be baptized but God decided to remove her from suffering just before we managed to do it. Just before mom went unconscious, I had the privilege of whispering words of assurance to her ear "Jesus loves you", "He will carry you through". I read out Psalms 23 to mom as God delivered her on 18th Feb night, we kissed her farewell on her forehead. It's not easy dealing with the loss, I prayed for God's strength, assurance and comfort to be with us. Mom has run the race well, she lived a good life. She is resting in the arms of the Lord for the Lord says "Come on to me those who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest".

Psalm 13:5But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Psalm 28:7The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Blessed worship experience

Worship is a special time with the Lord and last Sunday I experienced a simple but touching worshipping session with the Lord. I went back to my hometown but not to my hometown church, instead I went to a Cantonese speaking church, my second time there. Not many familiar faces that I captured, majority of the worshippers are elderly people. The praise and worship session has no fancy musical instruments beside the piano, the worship leader is no handsome guy but a brother in his 50s I guessed, together with a sister in her late 40s. As we sang songs of worship, I observed elderly people before me clapping with joy, out of the beat but in their face I could see the joy of coming before the Lord. The congregation sang slowly but mightily for the Lord, I saw some youths in wheel chair, elders who squeezed their eyes for a clearer view of the songs flashed on the white wall, I saw the simple wooden cross with the blue lighting at the back, I saw old church pews with old hymnals and I saw simple worshippers worshipping the Lord with all sincerity and purity. I was truly blessed and praised God for this simple experience away from my normal routine experience with the Lord back in the city. God touched and spoke to me that morning. He desired each of us to come before him just as we are and with a heart just seeking and thirsting for His presence.

Father and daughter

As a parent, I'm becoming to realize how close I am to my daughters and how my Father in heaven has to repeatedly remind, discipline, reprimand me because He desires me to imitate Christ. As my daughters are growing up, my husband and I find ourselves having repeatedly to teach the same old topics, reinforce the same old behavior, correcting the same old mistakes just because we wanted our daugthers to imitate goodness which give birth to well mannered, behaviorly accepted and children of good character.

The spirit within me convicted me on how in many occassions, I am very much like my daughters, willingly disobey my Heavenly Father, trust in my own ability to do things, being self-centered and simply misbehave. It's funny how God uses circumstances in our lifes to reveal His teaching and message to His children. I realized, often it is me who turn off the switch connecting to Him and failed to tune to God's frequency. As a result miss God's abundance blessings on me and His desire to mold me into Christlikeness. He is preparing me to meet God eternally.

I prayed as the spirit leads and convicts, I will truly learn to be quiet and obedient to God.

Open my eyes..

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law. —Psalm 119:18

One of the resolution made this year with my dear husband is to long for Gods's word and to read through the entire Bible this year. A relationship can only be built through deep understanding of each other and this is most often achieved through quality time in two way communication. So Lord, as you lead me to another year, I prayed that each day the Holy Spirit within me will thirst and long for your word just like a young born baby long for her mother's milk. I understand that through your word, only my soul will be nourished and my faith strengthened to live a live worthy of your calling.

Give me, O Lord, a strong desire

To look within Your Word each day;

Help me to hide it in my heart,

Lest from its truth my feet would stray. —Branon