30 Dec 2010

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills –
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
The Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip –
He who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you—
The LORD is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm—
He will watch over your life;
The LORD will watch over your coming and going
Both now and forevermore.

Lord, I want to praise you for you are good. You are my help when I’m in need. You are the Maker of heaven and earth, all is created by you mighty Word and you gave them to us. You already prepare all that we need, even before we were created, our food, home, wonderful environment. We have no need not satisfied in you.

Lord, I want to praise you for your eternal guidance. You never sleep nor slumber – you watch over us all the time. You aware of what we are facing and challenge we are going into. You know for sure what we will need, and you supply it to us. You are always there watching us, and listening our prayers, and you know what we are in.

Lord, I want to praise you for your guarding. You always besides us, accompany us, holding our hands through the journey you had set before us. No matter how things change, you protect us. All the time you are with us and protecting us, in day time we are working, in night time when we are asleep. Whether we are aware or not, you are there protecting us and you are here with us.

Lord, I want to praise you for your preservation. You watch over us so that we are alive in you. You give us breath, you grant us lives. Wherever we go, you have your eyes on us. Whenever it is, you never have us outside your sight. You already guided us, and you are guarding us even now, an you will continue to watch over us till we see you in eternity.

Praise you my Lord, my Savior, my Rock, my Fortress, my Provider, my Friends, you the only God Lord the Creator of heaven and earth. In my Savior Lord Jesus Christ name, amen.

8 Dec 2010

O Lord our God, you answered them;
You were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds.
Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain,
For the Lord our God is holy. -- Psalm 99:8-9

Lord my God, praise you for you answer prayers. Your servant was praying for your guidance and mercy. You forgive and punished. Indeed that is just, for your servant sins against you and your people, and you are merciful righteous Judge.

Praise you for your holy name, praise you for you are Lord my God the Holy One. What am I, the least servant of you? Praise you for you still listening to your servant asking for your merciful acts, even when we sinned and not worthy to call your holy name. But you listened! What else can we say, other than praising you for your grace on your undeserving servant?

Lord my God, be gracious, again your little servant pray to you, when you punished us for our misdeeds, grant us strength to stand firm and lose no faith. Guard our hearts, lest that we lose hopes and despair and run away from you. Guide us through with your staff, shepherd us in your faithful grace.

Praise you, for you are Lord my God, the Holy One.

19 Nov 2010

Restore us, O LORD God Almighty,
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved. ~ ~ Psalm 80:19

Lord my God, restore your servant. Show your mercy on your pity son, for he is in pain and misery that lead him to nowhere. Let your mercy flow within him, that glorious joy you bestow through your Holy Spirit will revive his soul.

Have mercy Lord! For you knows deep in my heart, you search all deepest thoughts that is within me. Sanctify me, cleanse me, wash me, makes me whiter than snow. I wish to be holy before you but my mind is playing fool with me, driving me away from you, into swamp of sins.

It is you, whom I found delivering, and now I come before you humbly, that you will deliver me from the evil one. Save me from my wickedness, from the lust of flesh, so that I would find joy of salvation in you, and dwell in your peace for life to come.

18 Oct 2010

Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love. (NIV Psalm 48:9)

Oh Lord, great is Your unfailing love!
What are we, just a short-sighted human that live not long as compare of the history of Your redemptive work, worth a thought in Your mind?
What are we, being liars, always cheat and being unfaithful towards the things assigned, worth You made salt covenant with this little creature?
What are we, being sinners, who always rebels against Your holy and righteous will, worth You sacrifice Your only begotten Son to redeem us?

In your temple we find rest.
It is in Your holy temple, we realize how great Your love, with all the things You had done and ordained for us. You give us priest, to mediate and pray for us. You assigned the lamps to shine upon us, table with holy bread telling us that You supplies our daily needs, ark of covenant that reminds us of Your grace and unfailing love for us. Even the temple itself, reminds us that You are always dwelling among us, to be with us, for what would be more precious than that, that Creator Lord of Universe indwelling with this tiny little creature?

Lord teaches us! Teach us how to love, like You loves us. The greatness of Your love, everlasting, forgiving, righteous, holy, sacrificial love, is the love we need in our life. Lord, teach us to love those we deem unworthy, like we ourselves that are unworthy in Your eyes.

Are you sure you want to be?

First of all, you need to be a Christian. That means, to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ. You sure you want to do this? (Matt 16:24; 2Cor 6:14-15)

Then, you need to love Him more than you love me, because He asked you to love Him above all things, which includes me, will you do that? (Mark 12:29-30)

If yes, then you need to keep quiet and wait. First is that I am committed to a singleness vow until end of the year, second I believe that lady should keep quiet and let the man initiate. I feel extremely uncomfortable, more precisely tension and tempted, and hence frighten away, even if you just try to hint me. So, would you just be still, be patient, and wait, even if the longing process agonize you? (Songs 8:4)

And, you better be sure that you want to marry me if I would to say that three words to you, because that means I want you to be with me for our whole life, for better or worse, healthy or illness, richer or poorer. You sure you want to be my help-mate? (Gen 2:18, 22-23)

Be ready, because I might give you no rings or wedding routine (dinner, photographs, etc. all those things a girl dreams of for her wedding,) most probably that I would offer them up for His kingdom and others’ benefit. Are you willing to offer them up, as Jesus relinquished everything He has in heaven for us? (Roman 11:31, 12:1-2)

Oh yeah, our honey moon, I guess it won’t be Paris or Hawaii, not even Cameron Highland, but it could be a mission trip, or Reformed Theology Seminary. Are you still willing to follow me as I follow Him, to be my help-mate, so that I could be ready and better prepared to serve Him where He will call us to? (Matt 19:29)

Now we have children, we made a family, and we are in mission field. Will you take good care of them; teach them as the Bible teaches us, by sacrificing your own interests or hobbies. Would you like to do that, so that I could be more concentrate on the things He calls me to do, for the benefit of His Church? (Matt 19:29)

Finally, I may be die before you, (I would not choose to, unless this is for His Kingdom and the goodness of the others; I will always put you first after Him to consider, and sacrifice first of all things, you.) Are you ready to face that kind of loneliness and solitude, to trust Him, has all security in life built upon His promises, trust Him above all that He will take care of you? (Matt 6:33)

Are all these too harsh for you? They are hard for me, extremely high the standard He sets for us. But these are what He, who is the gracious God, demands of us, to be a sacrifice wholly and holy on the altar for Him? (Romans 12:1-2)

3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

2 August 2010

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalms 124:8

It is until we know how weak we are, that we realize how strong we could be in God’s arms. This I told my student this morning.

We often heard people, or even ourselves say that, “If only I could…”, “I was actually able to do so and so, it is just that…” It had been so much time that we look at ourselves, we think that we are good enough and capable to do something, which many times things turn out to be beyond our reach and ability. We over estimate things and under estimate the reality we are facing.

The good news is, He said to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness”. (NASB, 2Cor 12:9a) It is always about Him, His grace that enable us to face the difficulties, and His power that brings us through the distresses we are dealing with in our daily life.

We are weak. We just have to admit that. The technologies and all sort of historical monuments seems to tell us the other way, but such a tiny little creature we are in the universe, with limited strength, intelligence, life span, and no absolute control of environment, people around us (we can’t even decide or choose our parents, neither do them!) , things that could happened next seconds, we can’t determine when we were to be born, and no part in deciding when we going to die. (Commit suicide? Consider 《The Lotus Eater》)

But, this is not the dead end! Because of Jesus, because of this true, living God, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NASB, 2Cor 12:10)

We have the greatest helper, not in the universe, not in the whole history of human; but the Creator of universe and time Himself, who came down to Earth to go through all sorts of difficulties and temptations, which most probably we are not even going to face to the same degree as He did in our whole life. If God the Creator of the heaven and earth is our help, who, then, can defeat us?

13 June 2010

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:24-25

O Lord my God, I just wonder is that really possible for me to cut my hands off? Or can I just terminate my mind, make my eyes blind? At the same time I know this is possible, wishing it earnestly to happen so that I’ll be free from committing the sins I’m sinning, yet I know that I would not really want that to happen, as fear of uncertainty, and partly afraid of losing the chance to claim victory against these lusts that entangled me and minds that bring me into captivity of flesh.

How weary I am my Lord! Have mercy on me! The minds are wrestling against one another, one saying it doesn’t matter, just do what you like; another saying I should obey the law, to be holy is what You call me. But that task seems too big for me, looking at the giant around me, forget that it is not by my might nor strength nor will that I could face them, but by Your grace and Spirit I confront them.

Lord, have Your will be done on me, may Your glory be shown through me. Cleanse me, purify me with the blood of the Lamb, that on cross He carried my sins and sacrifice Himself to please You, to reconcile You with us, so that I can come before You, justified, sanctified, be acceptable, lovable before You. Lord I pray that You continue to carry me on Your wings, I know I am stubborn, many times not teachable, but I pray that You would never abandon me, and still guide me through the valley of shadow, may Your rod and staff comfort me. In the Lamb of God, my Savior, Jesus’ mighty name I pray, Amen.

12-06-2010

It is not our experiences which in the final analysis change us, it is always and only our responses to those experiences. ~~ Elisabeth Elliot

O Lord our sovereign God, I praise You for Your work in my life. You know, things didn’t happen the way I always thought of, for the best or the worst. But it is glad to know that You still in control of everything, seated on the throne, You reign over all regardless of time, space, person involved – there is no single piece moment or space where You gain no control over it.

Lord, I pray that You grant me the wisdom, know how to response to whatsoever happening around. I pray that You empower me, give me strength to endure, to withstand all the challenges in my life. I also pray that You continue to lead me, enhance my faith to follow You as Your idea is not to curse but to bless. Guide me my Lord, so that I always fear You and obey Your will, less that I go astray from Your righteous path.

Lord, have my life, and have it all. In Jesus’ most holiest name, Amen.

9 June 2010

O Lord, by all they dealings with us,
Whether of joy or pain, of light or darkness,
Let us be brought to Thee.
Let us value no treatment of Thy grace
Simply because it makes us happy
Or because it makes us sad,
Because it gives us or denies us what we want;
But may all that Thou sendest us bring us to Thee,
That, knowing Thy perfectness,
We may be sure in every disappointment that
Thou art still loving us,
And in every darkness that Thou are still enlightening us,
And in every enforced idleness that Thou art still using us;
Yea, in every death that Thou art still giving life,
As in His death Thou didst give life to Thy Son,
Our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
~~ Philip E. Howard

O Lord helps me to do Your will.
You know the struggles that I struggle, but I want to do Your will, in spite of all the temptation, environmental influence, my weakness, lust, evil thoughts against You.
But Lord my God, save me, through faith and by Your grace, I commit myself unto You. Be with me always, and make sure I’m always with You too.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

7 June 2010

Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burden, even the God who is our salvation. Selah God is unto us a God of deliverances; and unto JEHOVAH the Lord belong the issues from death.
Psalms 68:19-20

Everyday You bear our burden, thus saith the Lord. O Lord my God, I pray to you here again, asking You to lead me, guide me, take me, to where beyond my ability and strength and will could ever reach, so that I could reflect Your mighty name, so that people may see Your glory through me.

Lord, show some mercies! Be gracious to me! For I’m a flattering child, weak and fool, in almost every part of my life. Should I commit the same fault always? Do I need to repeat the same mistake everyday? Should I just fall into the same pit daily? Oh Lord my God, save me! For You are my deliverer, my savior, my Lord, my God.

Dear heavenly Father, deliver me from the sins I had made, from the temptations I unable to run away, from the wrong doing that I could not stop not doing them. I am weak and lame before You: save me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Amazing Grace that Leads thru dangers

Thru many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
~~ Isaac Watts 3rd stanza

It is not that I won’t fall, or that I’m strong enough to overcome all the dangers.
Instead, we always fall into snares, sometimes set up by our enemies, in other times we choose to step into it ourselves.

But You never let us go. You still hold us closely to Your palm. Even when we try to hurt ourselves, the people around us, who we care and who cares about us, and even we try to hurt You. However we tried, Your still loving hands, hold us tide and gently bring us back to Your heart.

Lord, thank You, for the grace that we undeserved. For such a sinful creature we are, why bother us, why not just leave us alone? But Your great love demands our obedience, our offering, ourselves. And here we are, because Your grace sustained us, and lead us back where we should be, going where You wants us to go.

Praise You, for Your unconditional love, that forgives whatever sins we commit, to bring us under Your wings. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ps 13 --- 13 Apr 2010

How long, O LORD, wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; lest mine adversaries rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
Psalms 13:1-6

When we all seems to drown in sadness, despair, love-less, we thought that no one care about us, no one ever love us, and He, our Lord Savior, seems to forget about us at all. There are times that we feel sorrow, that our tears drops deep in our heart, and no one understand it, no one seems to bother it. At the same time our enemy goes against us, trying their very best to put us down, and we are as weak as the ant step by our own feet.

But He does care, He still there, listening to our prayer, feeling what we feel, thinking what we are thinking, yet not taking any action. Neither because He can’t, nor He doesn’t want to, but He love us so much that He want the best for us, even in such terrible circumstances. He will open our eyes, lightening us, in His time to see what He sees in us. He will save us from this darkest valley of death. He will grant us the greatest joy for us, to dwell in Him always.

I should trust His mercy always, even things happened to be getting worse. I will learn to rejoice in His salvation, for He saved us from the darkest age of our life, now He is saving us from all temptations, negative thoughts that go against Him, and He will, again, save us in the future, bringing us into the new Heaven. I will sing to Him, for He is gracious to me, always building my faith in Him, helping me to gaze on Him, wondering His mysterious act would lead me somewhere beyond my imagination. He is worthy to be praise, for the Lamb of God had died for us and bring us new hope of life.

6 April 2010

1O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,
or discipline me in your wrath.
2Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
3My soul also is struck with terror,
while you, O Lord—how long?
~~ Psalm 6:1-3

Not yet terror, I guess, but the weary soul in me, need your steadfast love to heal me. Have mercy on me O Lord! Whom else can I dwell so that I have eternal peace that mountain can't shake, waves of ocean can't wash away? Except You Lord my God?
Don't wait too long, my Lord, I pray. But let Your will be done, not mine. And help me want nothing more than You.
In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

5 April 2010

But as for me, in the multitude of Thy loving kindness will I come into Thy house: in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.
Psalms 5:7

My dear Lord, please listen to me, as You are loving and kindness Lord. You knows the weary and broken I have before Thee. Search me, comfort me with Your Spirit, may I dwell in Your abundant mercies.

You are always good and kind. May I enjoy the heavenly peace and joy that You give through sufferings. Unto Your hands I commit my life, my way, my broken soul, my weary spirit, may that be a sacrifice on the altar that You pleasingly accept.

Lord my God, I pray that You continue to lead my life. In Thy fear I will worship You in Your holy temple. May Your tender mercy bless me, may Your joy fill my cup, till I want no more. O Lord, help me want You more than everything else.

In Jesus Christ, Lord Your holy name I pray, Amen.

Trust in the Lord with all my heart

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding: In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

It was never easy to trust in the Lord, not even to say with all our heart. We tend to lean on our own understanding, experience, and knowledge. But here it says, we should trust in the Lord, with all our heart, (this heart also include mind) and not rely on our own understanding. Sometime this is so hard, cause we never see what He seen, know what He knows, and think the way He thinks. But if, we believe that He is good, wise, and love, we shall trust in Him in all circumstances, even those un-thought of events.

Acknowledge Him in all our ways; for He shall direct the paths we should follow. He is our guard, and our guide. He will lead us through what so ever we will encounter in our lives, whichever way that we should choose in making daily choices.

Sometime the path might seem to be weary; a lot of obstacles in it, and it were so hard for us to go through the path. We might be hurt, wound; sometime we can’t even continue the journey. But He will heal us, if not, He will simply carries us on His wings and bring us forward.

We need to trust Him, we should. Who else could compare our great Jehovah our Lord? Who else can we rely, or trust if not Him the Shepherd of our life?

Credo-et-gracias

A new beginning

A new journey

Credo

Means faith

This a journey of faith

That through faith

I see the way, the master plan

He had for me.

Gracias

Means grace

This is a new beginning

Granted by His grace

That only is by His grace

I go through the way, complete the master plan

He pre-destine for me.

May all this

Reflect faith

Proclaim His grace

In this journey

That He lead