For the past year, i stuck this verse by my work desk “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.” (1 Cor 10:13, msg)

Tests/temptations of sorts i’ve faced over the past 29 years of my life, but none as trying as my recent “test”. Waking up one day, I discovered that i could no longer move my right index finger, which was later diagnosed as tendonitis. Amongst other inconveniences, this was the start of - laying off work for close to 2 months and taking a break from the Worship & Music ministry in my church as a keyboardist. Physical pain and inconveniences aside, i struggled much and hard with God. Continue reading this post…

I’ve been seeking the Lord for the longest time over a path that I’m currently taking and whether it is the right path for me. I’ve asked for wisdom repeatedly and direction but unfortunately, no burning bushes appeared on my way to work nor any giant fish coming after me. God seemed to be content allowing my own wisdom to determine the path that I should take.

However, today, I was given a very apt reminder of what the Bible speaks about wisdom. It is found in Proverbs 2: Continue reading this post…

Have you had a “spiritual encounter”? If yes, perhaps you’d like to contribute to this blog =) Else, this question might evoke other controversial questions or comments, like “what exactly is a spiritual encounter?” or “i believe only in what i see, so what i can’t see doesn’t exist!”

Or maybe you are like me, one who believes in the existence of God the father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, angels, satan and demons, but have never seen them with my physical eyes. Though my curiosity is piqued when i read about biblical accounts of angelic revelations / visitations and the casting out of evil spirits in the name of Jesus. Also, it is always interesting to read or hear testimonies of how some people actually “see” spirits of sorts.

Well, I’ve recently received a video on a muslim scholar’s encounter with Jesus. It’s an impactful video attesting to God’s reality, love and compassion. Hopefully, you’ll click on the link below and be blessed just as i have been.

In case you choose not to watch the video (pls reconsider?!), sigh :(, i’ll summarize that, “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.”
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How do you express your praise and adoration to God? The God of creation, God of all generations, God of all nations?

Growing up in the contemporary service from a mix of traditional and charismatic churches, I am comfortable standing and lifting my hands as i sing praise and worship songs. On the contrary, i find it a tat uncomfortable when i am in services where the congregation stands arms-folded, lips sealed, staring at the worship leader. Well, i have heard defending arguments that everyone worships in different manners and some just prefer to be silent or are shy in expressing themselves in a manner which differs from the neighbour beside them. Surely, we are all different. But i find it most strange how many wouldn’t be shy screaming at some pop idol, but are reserved when it comes to worshipping the King of Kings.

Well, this is not an article to judge but to share some recent experiences and reflections. Continue reading this post…

How many times have you heard someone say this, ‘Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with God’? Many of you have probably heard it say before. I know, because I am one of those.

However, recently, I was again reminded of this profound yet so easily forgotten truth about our faith. It is ALL about having a relationship with the creator of this universe, the creator of you and me and all that moves and don’t move. We get lost in all our man-made rituals and practices that we sometimes lose the whole point of all these things that we have set in place.
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It was only a matter of time before the principles of this world clashed with the Spirit of God present over Singapore. If you had kept abreast with the recent parliamentary debates, you would know what I’m talking about. It’s over the issue of legalizing homosexuality in Singapore.

First, we all need to praise and thank God that the clause wasn’t dropped despite heavy pressures to remove the criminalizing of homosexuals in Singapore. Hallelujah! I’m sure that there must be hundreds of Christians who had prayed against the dropping of this law and thank God, His servants have managed to hold off this onslaught….. for now.
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God has been prompting me to remember how He has worked out His perfect plan in my life all along. By that, I mean teaching me how to play the guitar.

I have never considered myself as being ‘gifted’ with the gift of music. I was made to learn the piano when I was a child (thank God for my parents). I hated it, but they didn’t allow me to give it up. Eventually, due to some circumstances in my life and my family, my piano lessons stopped when I was in grade 5. I was certainly no gifted pianist as I could only play medically and only when I had the scores in front of me. Talking about singing, I was certainly no Josh Groban either. I liked to sing, no doubt, even tried my hand at ‘talent-times’ but never made it past the first round. Thus, it seems that music is not one of the paths that God has chosen for me to take and was the farthest thing in my mind. Continue reading this post…

Many a times, we tend to get lost in what we do not have and forget what we have. God has certainly blessed each of us richly and abundantly, more than we could ever ask or imagine, it’s just that the things that He has given us are so easily taken for granted that we do not stop and give thanks for all the goodness in our lives. Therefore Heavenly Father, in response to your prompting, I want to take this opportunity to give thanks to you for 10 things that You have done in my life.
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As I told you, my church is doing a study on Daniel and as I was reading Dan 4, I realized something new from this book that I never saw before. The surprising thing is, this revelation is not about Daniel, nor his 3 friends, but it’s about the king, King Nebuchadnezzar (King N for short).

From the start of the book, King N played an important part in the story. In fact, he was personally there to witness all of God’s miracles and blessings demonstrated through Daniel and his 3 friends. You find that he saw how God blessed Daniel and his 3 friends with wisdom above all the other young men brought into his kingdom (1:19). Then he was the very reason God performed the next miracle of giving Daniel supernatural revelation of his dream (2:19) as well as the interpretation.

Next God delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego powerfully from the burning flames that even killed the guards that threw them in (3:25). Finally (I read until Dan 4), God gave Daniel the revelation of King N’s dream again in Chap 4, which was a clear message that he needed to repent and put his faith in God or he will lose everything (4:27). The message cannot be any clearer than that.

But look what happened?

King N simply took God’s words (from Daniel’s mouth) and ignored it. It seemed as though he went about his daily life as though nothing has happened after the prophesy. And true to the prophesy, King N didn’t acknowledge God and lost everything before repenting.

Don’t you find it amazing that a man who had such personal encounters with the power, presence and demonstration of God can simply ignore all that and refuse to acknowledge Him as Lord? I bet that most of us will say that if we can only see one miracle, just one miracle from God, our faith will be so much strengthened and we will never doubt Him again. After reading Daniel, my question is, are you so sure?

Just like the Israelites, who witnessed God’s most awesome and spectacular miracles, who had a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide them, can abandon their faith at the first sign of difficulty or trouble. What makes us so sure we are any different?

I guess what God is trying to say to us is, there is so much more to faith than what we see or hope to see. There were and still is thousands of people whose faith in Christ is so much more secure than King N or the Israelites, who have seen and experienced God physically. Faith is truly an inner conviction, something that cannot be seen, and is so much more powerful than believing based on physical evidences. Perhaps that is why, God seems so elusive at times. He knows that revealing Himself to us in great fanfare, is not the route to increasing our trust and faith in Him. History has shown that. Rather, it is the continued quiet promptings from within us, that spurs us to seek Him more in order to hear and know what He is doing, that is what develops a strong foundation for our faith.

So next time you plead with God to show Himself in some grand display of power in order to affirm your faith, remember King N and how it was completely useless to him. Faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things unseen. Concentrate on building up your faith through the consistent dependence on Him for the small things and when huge trials come your way, you won’t need God to send lightning from heaven in order to continue believing.