Tuesday, June 27, 2006
3:03 pm
hey everyone.. something happened yesterday that i really really want to praise God despite bringing me through this. yes. it was something real horrible and it happened during the examination.
yesterday morning. i was already feeling real real horrible when i was about to go to school. felt really really sick but i didn't want to miss any of the examinations as it will affect my promotional grades. and think about it. if i took it all alone. with the teacher staring right at me. i'll be super stressed that i can't even think. But thank goodness God brought my THROUGH it. haha.
had literature paper in the morning. a 3 hr straight paper. was horrible. ok the paper was fine. my brain was thinking and my brain juices were flowing. had a slight headache during the paper but i was still able to bear with it so i had to keep going on for 3 hours. no toilet no water. was a mental and physical torture .
that wasn't the worst.
then came general paper. i was feeling all miserable during the 2 hr berak in between the papers. really all miserable. i had a horrible stomach pain. and headache. i couldn't even revise my notes as i planned to do. i felt like i was about to faint any moment. and i'm serious. literally FAINT. but as mentioned, i didn't wanna leave the school missing any paper. i have to really thank my friends (remember i said most of them are believers,catholics,anglicans..etc.) they prayed for me before we proceeded to the auditorium . and to our surprise. that wasn't our venue for the examinations!!! it was supposed to be at the AVA room which was at the other END of the passageway!. i had to run with my miserable headache and stomach pain. which made me felt worst after that. i felt REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY miserable. my classmate, dawn, was saying "you must have faith!! have faith God will answer our prayer" haha. i thank God for such friends to keep me going. for a minute i was asking God what was happening. the first paper was 1.5 hr. i felt miserable the whole time. that after 15 mins i started lying on the table to write my composition. with an AWFUL AWFUL handwriting. and after 45 mins. i was hurting till i (surprisingly) start whispering a little prayer in tongues there and then. after that i was half asleep and half in pain. however, I MANAGED TO FINISHED THE PAPER! and after that paper. i had another one after that by the way. i felt much much better. i even had the time to correct a few "un-readable" words before the time was up. THANK GOD.
after that i breezed through paper 2 for GP. THANK GOD.
when was the last time u tested your faith? yesterday afternoon.after the paper. when i was home. didn't felt all that good but much better. i was unable to revise my economics for today's paper. and guess what. i managed to write 4 essays in 1.5 hrs. which i thought was an impossible task throughout the 17 years of my life. hahaha.
God is good, all the time
So when was the last time u tested your faith? =))
+lyn
You were blessed by marilynHuang
Sunday, June 25, 2006
12:05 pm
Hi all
This would be my schedule for now.
26 Jun, Mon, 815-1145: General Paper
27 Jun, Tue, 815-1115: Chemistry
1130-1230: Chemistry H3 selection Test
1400-1700: Mathermatics
28 Jun, Wed, 815-1115: Physics
1130-1230: Physics H3 selection Test
1400-1530: History
30 Jun, Fri, 815-1130: Chinese Language
4 Jul, Tue, 815-915: Chinese Listening comprehension
10 Jul: Track and Field Nationals (Straight Finals)
13 Jul: Chinese A-Level Oral
17 Jul: Piano Exam (Sis as well)
19 Jul: NJC CIP Day.
Wonderful time for the Lord to show his soverignity.
You were blessed by P{ZM}
Saturday, June 17, 2006
10:38 am
Hello,
I have taken some time to consider Zhuang Mao's question to my previous question, which considers why we pray if God has known and pre-destined everything.
Indeed, God created the world at its beginning. But perhaps we fail to see that God has also created the end. In fact, the whole of existence can be considered to have existed all the while. In this sense, God has pre-destined everything, since there is nothing that can change what God has already known. It is worth thinking about this - Did God cause everything to happen?
The answer is probably 'No'. As Zhuang Mao has noted, God has allowed us to have free will, to choose as we will and as we please. He did not want us to sin, but Adam and Eve did; He did not want the Israelites to fade from the splendor of David's reign, but they gradually disintegrated. But God, being all-knowing, has already forseen this, and through His Old Testament prophets He had already predicted the salvation that is to come from our Lord Jesus Christ. He knows exactly how we are going to make the next decision, because He is all-knowing.
So why do we pray? We pray because we need to communicate our petitions and intercessions for others to God. He knows our hearts, but He wants us to communicate with Him, for our own good, not His (how can we possibly benefit God in any way? He is omnipotent!). In prayer, we come into the realisation that we have a God who answers our prayers, and it strengthens our faith. This in turn assures our salvation, lest we fall from grace. Does He benefit from all these? Far from it! Why does He need to grieve His heart for the sake of Man? Why, because God is love, and He loves His creation! He stands to gain nothing from our salvation and our comfort, because He owns everything.
Does God pre-destine our prayers? This is a contentious point, but I believe that prayer is as much a personal decision as any other,
i.e. He does not pre-destine it. But even before we pray, He knows if we will pray, and what we will pray. In fact, the whole of history and the future is laid out before Him as a map is laid out on the table, plain for Him to see. Remembering that God exists outside of time, it is therefore possible to accept that God does not follow our pattern of making plans and decisions. To Him, everything laid out in terms of the four dimensions (3 spatial dimensions and 1 temporal dimension) - in much the same way that we can give the exact coordinates of Mount Everest, so too can He indicate with precision every decision that every living thing makes at every point in time.
As part of Creation we can never quite understand how to predict decisions. This fact is most clearly brought out if one plays chess. In the game of chess, the objective is to be able to predict each decision that the opponent will make after each of your pre-planned move. It takes a very good player to pre-empt the opponent by 8-10 moves; it is impossible to predict a whole game before the other person has made a single move. But God being the Creator is able to see all our decisions. Think of God as the BEST chess player in the whole world, and so much more. Not only is He able to forsee your chess moves, He can predict everything you will do, without needing any limitations on your decision-making freedom (in chess, the decisions are limited by the moves that each piece can perform, as well as the turn-by-turn nature of decision-making). This means that He has not compelled you to act in any manner, which is of course in line with our point that God does not
cause everything to happen (although He can).
God does not need to wait for us to make a decision before He makes His move, because He knows all our moves. He does not need to wait till we decide whether or not we will pray before He can respond (by answering our prayers if we do pray, and by not answering if we don't). But let us never fall short of His commands, and do not wonder for one second if we should pray!
The conclusion of the matter is this - that God knows everything, but does not pre-destined everything, despite frequent confusion to the contrary. Some people lump God's omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence and propose that God must therefore have pre-destined everything, that free-will is nothing but an illusion. This can be no further from the truth, for does God delight in grieving for a sinful world? That is a strange proposition indeed. God's good plan includes our prayers and petitions, so let us not tarry further. Living in God's will requires that we communicate with Him, for how can one man please another except if he knows the desires of the one he is trying to please? Therefore, I urge you to pray, and pray often. For our God is a prayer-answering God!
Cyrus
You were blessed by Cyrus
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
8:40 pm
Hi all,
Firstly I have to apologise for the relative lack of activity on the block these past week, since I am quite busy at work. I promise to get things running again soon.
Next, some housekeeping issues. We will be having our cell Bible study this Saturday at 5pm, Chancery. Do remember to come! Zhuang Mao I have not received your confirmation yet, so do get back to me soon. Also, for the Radical Conference, Marilyn has confirmed that she cannot attend. As for Yizhen and Zhuang Mao, try to reply asap too. Finally, some prayer requests:
1.) Yizhen - She's having her wisdom teeth removed this Friday!
2.) Melanie - She's having her exams!
3.) James - He is not feeling well!
4.) Bing Hong's Mum - She's been diagnosed with breast cancer, in its intial stages. The tumor has been removed, and she's currently receiving treatment. Pray for her too!
Remember that prayer moves the Hand of God!
Cyrus
You were blessed by Cyrus
Monday, June 12, 2006
9:37 pm
following marilyn's entry, i shall say something.......
sorries for not being able to reply to all the questions posted here.... haven got the energy to come online for weeks....
and finally....
i'm here to update everyone..... i'm approaching the end of my contract with CPF... so right now i'm looking for a permanent job tat i hope to do for a year while i plan my education route tat i wanna head towards....
am going for an interview tml afternoon.... the place is pretty far..... but i kinda like the job scope and it's something i think i can handle most importantly.... and wat's better... the pay is far better than my current one.... hope tat this entry is not too late.... do keep me in prayer.... thanks....
and ya..... i'm going to take out maybe 3 or 4 of my wisdom tooth this friday, 16th june.... tat's a friday..... pls pls pray for me..... hope tat everything will be well.... cos i'll be going through general anaesthetic.... and taking most/all of my wisdom tooth together.... day surgery....
okie.... tat's my update....
p.s. mar-li-lian (read: marilyn)... study hard k... will pray for you... and not forgetting evan as well.... and cyrus... wat a coincidence to see ya on the train this morning... haha.... and also hi to zhuang mao (mao mao! Oops!) and also to james and arlene who are both in japan.... i heard from cyrus tat you are not well... will pray for you too.... take lotsa care k everyone...
till we meet again....
luv,
yizhen.....
You were blessed by zhen~
Thursday, June 08, 2006
9:17 pm
hey peeps. so sorry about my sudden disappearance activity in the blog and maybe even online. have been studying and going to school every single day. *rahhh*. anyway here are my examination dates.please do keep me in prayer as this will be 30% of my promotional results. *shivers in fear*.oh yah anyway. i've put evan's examination dates there as well. so do keep her in prayer too!!
26 June -
H2 Literature 0800-1100
H2 Physics 0800-1020 (Evan's)
H1 General Paper 1300-1600*
27 June -
H2 Economics 0800-1045
H2 Chemistry 1400-1630 (Evan's)
28 June -
H2 Mathematics 0800-1100*
H1 Chinese 1300-1600*
29 June -
H1 Chemistry 1300-1500
H1 Economics 1300-1445 (Evan's)
* - Both me and Evan having the same paper. so do keep us in prayer!! :)
+lyn
You were blessed by marilynHuang
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
7:50 pm
Hi Zhuang Mao,
Thank you for replying. I will address your latter comment in this post. I shall get down to studying your first comment shortly.
Indeed, the reliability of the Bible is very important. As we always say, the Word of God is complete. It has every instruction for every situation. This is why we always verify information against the Bible - if it is contrary to the Bible, we have to reject it, because we are Christians and we
must have faith in God, no matter what (this is the very basis of Christianity, the
ipse dixit of our Lord). Yet, I would like to know, where exactly in the Bible does it say, explicitly, that Jesus was not married? You may find the answer harder to locate than expected. In fact there is a lesson to be drawn from this - sometimes we take traditional beliefs and assume it is in the Bible (a less consequential example is that of Jonah and the "whale"). However, we have to always remember that no matter what tradition says, it is the Word of God that must prevail at the end of the day!
Cyrus
You were blessed by Cyrus
Somehow, I feel that God does not predestine everything - which is where free will comes in. He knows everything, but does not necessarily cause it to occur. Everything is pre-known but not predestined.
This is how someone once explained it to me. Prayer is a like a way which God "forces" us to have a relationship with him. The analogy drawn is that of a grandfather who holds some coins in his hands. The grandchildren are on his lap, trying to get him to open his hands. In the end, the coins given are inconsequential. It is the time spent with the grandfather that he wants. The analogy is perhaps imperfect, but, thats that.
There is this other little thing. Although we say that
even if Jesus was married, he is still God, this does have one other implication - the reliability of our Bible. In other words, it is consequential if it is different from what the Bible describes.
God bless those who are at the church camp.
You were blessed by P{ZM}
Sunday, June 04, 2006
9:55 pm
Hello Cell Members!
I have another question for all of you, seeing how the previous one ended with no follow-up. =P
God knows everything and has pre-destined everything. Somehow, He still asks us to pray, as if praying will make any difference. At the same time, we know that Man has free will, and has chosen to sin (Adam!). Yet if we have free will, how is it possible that God will know everything right from the beginning? If He has created everything exactly as He wanted it to turn out, whence comes the free will? Why do we even pray? Hasn't everything already been decided?
Cyrus
You were blessed by Cyrus
