"If you take God away from your life, would your life still remain the same as it was?"

In Soviet Russia, Half Time Huddles You

This post is about the Beyond Camp which I had a few days ago, or more as a church/youth retreat as known in America. All I'm going to do is list a few things I got out of the camp, that is all. A lot of it has to do strongly with religion and faith and is very personal, so if you are uncomfortable with this then do yourself a favour and don't read on.

I Think That It is Shocking

that I could be considered a Christian for 5 years, and do not understand basic theology. If somebody came up on the street and asked me what salvation, faith, truth and the Trinity meant I would have trouble answering his questions. That's probably because I have never been asked these questions directly; rather indirectly, and I wasn't expected to give an answer. Therefore I never was obliged to take Christian faith seriously.

Other than the ones I see every Saturday and Sunday at service the majority of my friends are 'apathetists' or atheists. I remember taking a philosophy class in year 10 solely because all my other school friends were doing it as well, and I didn't want to be left out of the circle. When the teacher asked if anybody believed in a god no one put their hands up, not even me because I was not ready to defend my faith. The teacher looked a bit shocked, replying 'well, many people rely on religion as inspiration in their lives.' But still she didn't get any response that admitted that they believed in God, and my friend silently muttered to me, 'well, don't you go to church?'

Proverbs 3:5-6 in a Nutshell

Always plan for yourself in simple dependence on God. It is nothing less than self-idolatry to conceive that we can carry on even the ordinary matters of the day without his counsel. He loves to be consulted. Therefore take all they difficulties to be resolved by Him. Be in the habit of going to him in the first place — before self-will, self-pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, convenience, expediency. Before any of these have been consulted go to God. Consider no circumstances too clear to need his directions. In all thy ways, small as well as great; in all thy concerns, personal or relative, temporal or eternal, let Him be supreme.
-Charles Bridges

The Aftermath

I reckon during the past few weeks that everything I've heard at church or youth I've just left with quiet acceptance, since I've been so busy with work in general. Today I finally got proper sleep in a long time (and just realised how great it is) and had time to question myself and the stuff I'm been reading and hearing lately.

Today on the menu was reading a recommendation of a book which was akin to the 'Christian's guide to Surviving College', where you can see a short synopsis of it here and also discussions on college in general; questions if we are really going to college (or as they call in Australia, uni) for a God-given purpose and not because it's the expected norm in society.

So I Stand, With Arms Wide and Hearts Abandoned

The greatest weakness of the Christian Church at the present time is the quality of our living. There are too many horizontal Christians. The word of God repeatedly calls for us to "stand". Our faith should be vertical, not horizontal. But so many Christians spend their lives picking themselves up off the floor. They get up to struggle a little more, and then down they go in defeat once again.
-Limiting God, John E. Hunter

Bible study season is over. I'm now back to my life goal of reading most if not all the books in the church library (which in truth is a selfish indulgence so I can boast to someone that I am the only person who's ever touched all the books). I was in the midst of finishing off all the A.Z. Tozer books first, but I want to read something different this time.

It is interesting to note that most of the devotional books were written in the 60-70s when Communism, Red Scare and the Cold War were major topics. Also, American church politics. It's amazing that most of the devotionals are still relevant to this day.

Hillsongs

Look at this picture. Enough said.


(Sorry this post is late, Blogger was down for a whole day before I could get to it.)

Actually, read more about my personal thoughts here:

Serving God In Many Ways

At first when I heard that I had to serve God and continue to obey Him to get any further spiritually, I wondered what to do. Donate money? Join the worship team, or the youth committee, or the art team?

For the past few months, I've been missing the point. I've been spending empty prayers asking God how can I serve Him, and realising that one of the ways to serve God is obeying Him in everything that we do. For example, doing the chores. Instead of thinking as something you have to do just for the hell of it, do it in a way that glorifies God. For example, you might wash the dishes, knowing that you are serving others and setting an example for Christ. You might stack the chairs after church service, for the same reason.

I know that I find it hard sometimes to find any application for serving God in everything, and one area is under my university work. It's probably because I've never thought about it, and I for a long time have treated study as something I had to do, something I had to fulfil, almost if like life had a check list, and 'getting uni degree' was on it because it was the prerequisite for 'getting job', 'getting money' and 'getting a living'. But no longer is 'getting uni degree' the easy way out, unless you are prepared to sacrifice your life.

I am increasingly in doubt in whether I can make the transaction to sell my soul to architecture, but I know that none of that matters. But something I have to do is to give my soul to God, and in His hands nothing goes wrong. I would be secured into eternal life in Heaven. But that as well, needs a lot of hard work as well and it's not as simple. But it is way more preferable then sinking into a downward spiral, not knowing where you're going in life. As Jesus says, if you follow him:

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
-Matthew 11:30

I realised that it is important to give up everything in order to serve God, and there is still a lot of areas in my life I have to give up to God. I thought that giving up everything to serve God was to drop everything, proclaim to your parents that you're going off to a missionary to the far East and never coming back. That is obviously the wrong idea (first, if it was everyone would be doing it, but that's truly not the case here). One thing is to give up everything, you have to give up selfish ambitions. To do something for self-fulfilment, to do something in life because you want to show how successful and great you are, or because you want to join the rich and famous, or you want to be seen by your friends as 'cool'. To give up the fact that you never are in control of your life, and God is.

But that's just a start. For example, to serve God in the current situation I'm in, I must not study architecture in the hope I will get recognised for being good at what I do, or earn a reputation solely by works (It's true anyway, whether God is in the picture or not). I must not extort anyone or ask anyone for favours/bribes. I must be willing to put a lot of hard work in, but not just to please my coordinators, but to show to God that I if I am a hard worker in other areas of my life, I can be a hard worker in my spiritual life (but at the same time, I must not neglect that part of my life). I must learn to treat people with respect, and don't start thinking that I am doing better off than most people, but be humble in everything I do. If I help certain people, it is for the good of God and not because I want brownie points or possibly their favours. I must be sincere with people, and be genuine; no spilt personalities. And I must not give in to drunken revelry, which is pretty easy to do given you hang out with certain people.

And the list could go on and on, but then I've read back the list, and I know that none of those applied to me last year. Wow.

I had made a mental list slowly during the last week and it was quite an eye-opener to me, and showed myself that I hadn't been quite giving 'all my life' to God (scrap quite giving; NOT giving), although it would have been probably the lyrics of half the songs I've sung in youth last year. All I can say is, I am in need of forgiveness. And I need to pick up the slack.

The most important thing I got out of youth last week is that it's very important in the way you set up as an example for Christ. If I continued to do the things I did last year, I would be giving Christians a bad name, I would be giving the church a bad name, and most importantly, I would be giving God a bad name. I can't go on and ignore what I've just done, if I've got to serve God.

Dreading Next Week

Do you know the feeling when you've tried so hard on something, but then you feel as if you shouldn't be putting all that energy into hard work, because you know all you need to do is to finish it? But after you've tried to put off your work in order to stress less, you end up getting a not so good result, and in the end you feel so outwitted because you essentially gave up halfway for nothing.

Maybe you're not such a perfectionist like me, who worries when they get low results, or you don't feel any guilt when you slack off (maybe cause you do all the time). But it's true, the laziest person in the end has to work the hardest, even if he is a hard worker at first.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
-Col 3:23

If you're working at something you'd want to put your soul and your heart in it, otherwise you feel you won't get much out of it. But what if your soul and your heart is in your work just so you can please someone?

For example, if my mum forces me to practise the piano (I'm sure some of you have been there), all I will be doing is practicing because my mum told me to. There is something I feel obliged to doing to fulfill her 'bidding'. But if I am to do everything for God, then I shouldn't be forced to practise. If I am told that I have to practise, I will do it knowing I'll do it to the best of my ability to give the glory to God.

So if you going to do something go the extra mile for God. Don't get discouraged, don't fear and do care what you are doing. Know what you're doing something for. Maybe instead of asking, God, how can I serve you and expect Him to tell you; maybe say to yourself, here are things I can do to serve you. God will give you more than you can ever achieve.

I know it's hard sometimes, and I always need this reminder for myself as I often sink knee deep in what I think is something I can't get out of (for this reason, I am dreading next week when I start uni). It's easy just to lower your expectations, go with the flow, succumb to the tall poppy syndrome, whatever. But if I truly claim to believe in God, why don't I rely on Him, Him who can make big changes to anyone's lives?

Fitting All the Broken Pieces Together

Last week was a good week of talking to the Lord, and He has spoken very clearly about a lot of things, even though I am struggling with daily devotional time, and sometimes I don't end up praying every day.

For one, as I was collecting my marked folios and assignments from uni, I felt so horrified and disappointed at my work. I didn't want to touch it, I never wanted to set eyes on it again. I never wanted to know the mark because I knew it was probably close to a fail.

When I came back I then protested to God, muttering in half-dim-witted prayer in the hope He heard me. It went somewhat like this: 'I'm doing so bad in my course. It's probably because I lack desire for it now. You see God, I don't know why I'm studying architecture, when I don't truly have a passion for it. I don't hate it a fair lot, you know, like Monica hates accounting, but I just feel that I can't keep up any more. You know, if I keep this up, I'm eventually going to really hate it, and quit in my fury.'

To my surprise God answered with a straight reply, 'Look, why are you giving up so easily? You have a million things you want to start, but then you never finish. Like your videoing for example, or the time you took up costuming. Or even your piano playing. Besides, you really shouldn't be worrying about it, thinking about what you're going to study is actually very trivial, and the fact that you have a life in eternity, means that you shouldn't waste time thinking about what you are going to do in this life. You should spend some more time thinking about how you can serve Me. Besides, you haven't done that in a long time. But I don't want you to give up. I want you to hold in longer, because I didn't put you in this place for nothing.'

I wondered, how long? 'It doesn't really matter how long. If you do decide to quit, then I will bless you with whatever other path you chose. If you don't, then make yourself useful for once.'

So now I am wondering how to serve the Lord. I am thinking of joining the arts team at youth. At first I didn't want to go, because I thought that pride in my position would get the better of me. But then God said, 'it is a greater sin if you do not serve Me.' And when I thought back, I realised it was actually true; because I held back that one talent to serve the Lord, eventually led to my declining interest in design. And now, I am at wit's end to find out what really do I have left in life to do. What a silly excuse, this pride issue; I've tried to drown what seemed to be a big sin, but then it led to an even bigger sin. I heard the devil likes doing that.

Now I guess I found it, almost. I'm thinking of other options. But now I found that being with God truly gives you peace.