Just Someone from Thailand who wants to make a difference

Something simple but it brings a victory!

There was a king in the Bible. His name is King Jehoshaphat. During the time of his reign, there were 3 tribes of people wanted to raise a war against him. They wanted to defeat him and his people

Instead of panic, fear, despiar and worry of getting defeated by the enemies, King Jehoshaphat chose to be still before God in his heart, yet in that stillnes, there was ONE action that he took .. this is what he did …

“After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to SING to the Lord and to PRAISE him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to God, his love endures forever’.

As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were DEFEATED! (2 Chro 20:21-22)

God brought about a victory to Jehoshaphat and all he did was just praising God. How hard it was for him though to praise God knowing that the enemies coming to defeat him. But God’s solution is always higher than ours – it doesn’t depend on a logic, it depends on OUR FAITH! and how we would response the the situation.

There were times where I felt like i just cannot move on in my walk with God. I was stuck and couldn’t find a way out. At those times, I decided to turn on praise songs, turned the music volume to the max, and I started to praise God like crazy!!! (of course, my housemates were not at home otherwise they wouldn’t be able to sleep) Although, the situation wasn’t completely changed but deep in my heart I knew that God was pleased with what I did and after I praised God, He gave me an assurance that everything will be alright soon or later.

Praise Him now!

I believe there is more

Today is Sunday, at the moment, I am enjoying a breakfast that my roommate, Peter, made for me . It’s an egg omelette. Very nice!! 

Monday to Friday, I usually don’t have time for breakfast. Well, I do have If I choose to make a time for it, but I choose to sleep rather. My new working hours is super early. Starting at 7am, finishing at 3pm. I usually get up at 5.20am, do my devotional time til 5.50am, then, I will take a shower, groom myself and rush off to Roma Street train station in order to catch 6.34am Caboolture train which will allow me to arrive right on time at 7am. Yes, this is my life Monday to Friday. After work, I usually have shepherding, meeting or worship practice for church/LG. Otherwise, I will come home. 

I really enjoy my life and I have come to the mode where I am satisfied at where I am at. With my work. with my life, with my ministries, everything seems to be going ok at the moment. But deep down inside my heart, I believe there is more for my life. I want to be the one who is living a radical life for God. I believe there is more!! More that just getting up early in the morning, go to work and come back home! I don’t want to come to a satisfied mode but I want to desire more of Him.

Everytime where I pray, God use me! use me! I believe that He will use me more that what I can imagine. There is a promise that He has given to me in

1 Cor 2:9 saying No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has has conceived what God prepared for those who love Him

I believe there is more! More than this. As I am hoping for more of my life, I pray that I will not forget to be thankful for the present and the past. God has done so much in my life and He has brought me so far! And He will continue to bring me far as long as I love Him. Use me!!

What if the dream comes true?

This is an email I received from our dear sister Jos:

“Hey Jimmie,

Did I tell you, you and Winnie were in my dreams the other night. It was so scary. The scariest dream I have ever had. Anyway, it went like this. You, Winnie and I were at this random place. One day the headline of the news went like this: Jesus is not real. The Bible is hoax. We were furious. We were protesting, claiming that Jesus is real, and word of God is true and will live forever.

Then the people of the place wanted to prosecute us. It was so scary. Then it went pitch black. You, Winnie and I were running, running because we trying to escape, and then the mood changed. We were running because we were running late for dinner [HAHAHAHA].

Then we were at this very dark road being attacked by people. It was so dark, and the people were so dark, too. We were being robbed. Then I ran away, cried out for help. I screamed in real life, then I woke up because of my scream. That was it. It was very scary”

This is a very hilarious dream :-). Yet, I am thrilled to know that in the dream we are able to stand firm to what we believe despite harm that come against us. Not to surprise everyone here, but one day we will face a persecution! Let’s read the below: 

2 Tim 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

In our church, we have been learning on the topic of godliness. We are urging to live a godly life and I believe in every’s heart that love Jesus – there is a desire to be godly. We are striving to be godly daily. But it said that we will be persecuted when we live a godly life . If you choose to be godly, be prepared for a persecution! it said in the Bible, what an uncomfortable true! 

 

We will be persecuted for our belief one day! Ourselves may not face directly but our generations that come after us may face it and infact, our brothers and sisters in some countries ARE ALREADY FACING IT!! MANY OF THEM HAVE BEEN PUT TO DEATH BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH IN JESUS!

In JG Advace, Ps.Wenan asked us “if one day, you have to die for God, how would you die”? People came up with different answers: some said that they want to be put to death by injecting toxic into their blood, some said by being drowned into the sea and so on. For me, I just kept silence and was asking myself – can I really die for God? I really hope and pray that I can say yes and never reject Jesus no matter what.

Are you ready for persucution? [What a question!]

True Wisdom (For students)

The Scripture that God wants me to encourage us during this specific period of time is:

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”

Many people in this world claims that those who are in a high degree of their studies eg. doctor degree, honour degree etc. are those abundant with wisdom knowledge but God said it is not! We can only acquire true wisdom and knowledge when we fear God!!

Why do we fear God? For me, it is because of what He did for us on the Cross drive me to love and fear Him! Continue to remind ourselves of what God did for us on the Cross so we may fear Him and may we acquire wisdom from Him as we are studying for our exams and doing our assignments!

Love

Jimmie

Trophies

“So I will cherish the old rugged Cross, til my trophies at last I lay down”

Above is a part of the lyrics “The Old Rugged Cross” A beautiful old hymn. Written with such a deep revelation of God’s love for us through the Cross and how that Cross urges us to lay down everything in our life to follow Him.

We sang this son EVERY Sunday at my home church during communion time. I didn’t appreciate this song very much those days because I tried of singing it every Sunday and it is such a oldie song!!

But today, this song speaks so much to my heart, especially the above part of the lyrics.

God is urging me to lay down all of my trophies before Him again.

“God, I will lay my trophies down at that old rugged Cross again, so that I may exchange it someday for a crown!”

Good looking? How about your fruits?

Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognised by its fruit (Matthew 12:33)

Ps.Wenan shared to us a while ago that we don’t want to just be a professional church, having a professional pastor and doing professional Christian stuffs. We want to be a church that love God and love His people. We want to see people’ lives and our lives being transformed to be more like Christ. We don’t want to be a good-looking tree but bearing rotten fruits.

How would you define whether you are a good tree or not? Just as the Bible says, look at your fruits: What COME OUT from you, your behavior, your habit, your speech and including to what others at church, uni, workplace say about you.

It is not hard to fake God’s presence in our lives and telling other people that I am a “good” Christian.  We can lie to the whole world but not to God. May we be authentic before God and people.

Even in this period of exams, assignments and work – let us continue to bear godly fruits in our studies and in all things that we do.

No turning back

“I have decided, to follow Jesus. I have decided, to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back”

There was this man on the Thai talk show, this man was so in love with this girl but once they broke up, he came to the point where he wanted to suicide! It took him a while before he could realise that there is another person that loves him uncoditionally – his very own mom.

I cried as I watch this Thai show because the mom’s love reflects God’s agape (unconditional) love for me. As I spent time with him on that night, God reminded of the song “I have decided to follow Jesus” and a phrase “no turning back, no turning back” keeps resounding in me.

I tried to picture myself with God and I couldn’t imagine how it would be. There are so many paths that I can choose to walk in this world but today I have decided to walk on the path of righteousness and there is no turning back for me. I have gone with God too far to turn away from him. As I pray tonight, I hope that this will not just be my emotional feeling towards God but let it be a conviction in my heart that no matter what – the choice have already been made – no turning back for me!

called to sing

On 22/08/09, we held Worship Workshop for the first time ever in Daniels – organised by Pethuel aka Gin. It was a great time for all of us learing about the true meaning of worship. I was assigned to share about how God has called me into worship ministry especially in the area of vocal. It was not just a great time of outdoor praise and worship we had but  it was once again a time where I renewed my attitude toward worship and this event brought me back to the simplicity of worship.

This is some points of what I imparted on that day, hope it will encourage you to realise the calling of God upon your life:

Being a vocalist for God, How and Why:

• Before I became a Christian, singing was my hobby and it is still.  God has put this talent in me even before I found Him.

• I became a Christian in year 2002 in Thailand, the moment I first walked into the church (Hope Suratthai), God used music to minister to my heart. God used worship songs to touch my heart to the point where I decided to believe in Him.

• In Hope Suratthani, I was touched to see people sang as if God was right there in front of them.  Soon after I have committed myself to Hope Suratthani, God started to put a desire in me to serve as a vocalist in the church. Being a vocalist for God is a calling that God has put in me since an early stage of my Christian walk. I remember I was seeing singers on the stage and I was telling God that one day I will be on there, singing for Him too – it was just a mere and sincere desire God put in my heart.

• When I was a young Christian back in Thailand, I just wanted to serve God with what I have. I believed that singing is talent and gift God put in me and I am committed to use that to serve the Lord

• God has created me to be an expressive person; I believe God wants to see expressive worshippers.  God told me that He will use my expression of praise and worship to encourage others to expressively worship God with all their heart despite our Thai culture ie. Thai people can be reserved when they worship God.

• I decided to join the worship team in Hope Hatyai (Thailand) and I actively served as a vocalist in Hope Hatyai until I came to Brisbane – the calling to serve God in a worship ministry is still burning so I begun to serve in Ablaze LG as a backup singer, choir in WAM and now support vocalist for church service.  

I always remind myself with the story of 2 fish and 5 loaves in John 6:1-15. I want to be like that boy who offers all that he had for Jesus. My voice is like my 2 fish and 5 loaves unto God – although it is not much, limited and may seem to be useless in people’s eyes, but I believe after I have offered it up to Him, He will causes it to multiply so it can bless His people. Like how 2 fish and 5 loaves can bless the 5,000 people.I know, I am called by Him to sing for Him!

Man’s approval

Human being often judges others according to their appearance and performance – by what they have achieved, what they have gained and how they look. In the past, I would go extra miles to do things to please man. They don’t have to mention anything about my performance or my appearance; I am happy by just being noticed by someone. But it is a bonus if they also give me a positive comment on what I do and/or how I look.

I admit here that it was uncomfortable living a life that always pleases man. Man can fail us anytime. They failed me and it took me a while to pick myself up. It was a great lesson for me though because I am now convicted that whether people see my performance or not, God sees! I am running after God’s approval alone!

I hope that we can be authentic in all things that we do. We don’t have to pretend to be someone or try so hard do something in order just to please man. Whether we are in a public or in our own bedroom – we can be ourselves.

Don’t please man. Please God.