Friday, February 27, 2009

Happier Person in Christ

I can remember clearly how I was before I came to Christ. At that point of time, I can never describe what being happy was. Everything that filled my mind were negative thoughts like “I’m useless, I’m not worth anything” etc. Suicidal thoughts would follow and I can really say that my emotions were like a rollercoaster ride. Self consciousness were flooding me and I was really mindful of what people think of me. I started to become very distant from people, yet craving for attention from them. My relationships with my friends were broken due to jealousy, and the unforgiveness out of my broken family. I got into complicated boy-girl relationships to find love and attention that I had never gotten from my family.

On July 6th 2008, one of my best brothers, Shingkai, introduced me to FCBC. The sermon that I first attended was on self consciousness. I felt like God was just beside me, giving me comfort and most importantly, a wake-up call to stop dwelling in the situations I was in. I could remember myself crying and crying, and when my cell leader, Mirabel, prayed healing for me, I could sense that God was there for me. At that point, I was so touched and amazed by His love for me, that I decided to receive Him as my Saviour, my Lord and my Father.

Throughout my walk with God so far, He has truly moulded me into a better person. I am now a happier person with positive thoughts; I want to live my life to the fullest. In my encounter camp last December, I had truly forgiven my mother and father who had a divorce when I was two. My dad had inflicted verbal and physical abuse onto my mother. He was also a drug addict and had tried to feed me with drugs when I was two.

Jealousy no longer resided in my friendships and most importantly, I had gained a very caring, supportive and wonderful spiritual family.

No matter what happened, I have never been negative and never regretted receiving the Lord as my Saviour and King.

by Sher Minh
(Testimony dated 27th February 2009)
(Click here to read full post)


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Boys' Brigade JM Fraser Silver Award for Excellence

My Name is Colin and I'm the Captain of 86th BB Coy. This is our 7th year in Jurongville Secondary School where we started with 8 Boys and as of last week's Induction camp, our numbers have grown to 72.

86th BB Coy (in 2001)

86th BB Coy (in 2009)

We give Thanks to God for the incredible blessings he has bestowed this Coy through the years. This year, we recieved the JM Fraser Silver Award for the 3rd consecutive year. We started serving in the Boys Brigade out of Faith & Obedience and in the process, we have witness the Lord's multifold blessing both in the lives of our Boys and our Officers. Glory be to God!

by Colin Chu
(Click here to read full post)


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

22nd Feb Sermon Discussion - “The Gift of Grace”

1. (i) Give a token gift (e.g a bar of chocolate or packet of sweets) to ONE of your cell members. (As a leader, do this as a random generous act with no strings attached, as a demo of unwarranted grace). Ask a few of your members present to guess why this person received the gift (as this is a warm up question, do not let this sharing drag).

(ii) Wrap up this question by making mention how this illustrates in a small way last Sunday’s sermon is on “The Gift of Grace”. Unlike prizes that we work for, be it being best student, fastest in 100m dash etc, God’s grace is freely given to all.

2. Read John 1:14-17 (NIV) “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Although God has freely given us His grace, we do find ourselves “blocking or hindering” God’s grace. Ps Melvyn shared the 3 enemies of God’s grace and how you can find victory :

(i) Legalism – Regain the joy of freedom
(ii) Condemnation – Receive the revelation of God’s love
(iii) Pride - Respond with bold humility

Discuss in your group, what you understand by the word “enemy”. Asked each member of your group to share a word or a picture to describe (i) Legalism, (ii) Condemnation or (iii) Pride. Can you share with your group now how this blocks off God’s grace for a student / someone working.
[Possible scenarios for a student: (i) Legalism: Attending tuition or remedial classes for fear of not doing well, yet not paying attention during the extra lesson. (ii) Condemnation: Have very few friends so feel lousy and small. (iii) Pride: Good in certain subject or sport and don’t see the need to trust God as you trust your own intelligence or training more.]

(3) (i) Which of the 3 enemies of grace do you find yourself facing everyday ?

(ii) Is there someone you can be gracious to this week (e.g a classmate, teacher, parents etc). What is a Gift of Grace that you could give to him/her? (Click here to read full post)


Friday, February 20, 2009

Army is My Paradise!

My life in BMT is very relaxing physically, but still challenging mentally as I have to live with (1) People who uses vulgarities like punctuation mark, (2) Strict army regimentation, (3) Platoon mates who are not happy over every minor issues.

But for me? I believe that army is my paradise. It's a good training ground to build some character, and life principles.

When I first stepped into Tekong, I asked myself what do I want to see myself doing here - and I set only 1 boundary for myself: No vulgarities.

Eventually, as time passes, began to add more principles to my army life as I read the Word of God daily:

  1. No reading of FHM, Maxim or similar materials to set a good example as a Christian as well as to stop all the lust of the flesh.
  2. No Chao Keng.
  3. No complaining and murmuring about my duties.
  4. Humility -> I learn to take humble pie in all circumstances, give a listening ear to the people around me, help resolve misunderstandings, go an extra mile to help my section mates, encourage my platoon mates to get things done.
  5. Excellence - As the toilet I/C, i always report to the toilet the earliest, and leave the toilet the last during cleaning. I choose to do most of the dirtiest things and even do my duty when I'm not feeling well so that all the other cleaners are motivated to do as well.
  6. Discipline -> I learn how to discipline myself to do quiet time and read Godly books during my free time.

After applying so many principles in my army life, amazing things begin to happen:
  • Platoon mates came to confide in me about their family or girlfriend problems.
  • People invited me to do bible study with them, invited for prayer meeting, people are glad to work with me, even for guard duty.
  • I managed to share the gospel with my section mates.
  • Encourage one of my section mate with bible verses and resolved some tensions between my platoon mates.

In short, what I want to say is that the Word of God should turn into active living principles that you anchor on everyday of your life, Then as you apply these principles, you see yourself growing more, you see yourself able to manage all the challenges with great ease.

1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore stand firm my brothers, let nothing move you, for your labour in the Lord is never in vain

by Thomas Cheong Junjie (right side in photo above), 18 years old, currently in BMT
(Click here to read full post)


Thursday, February 19, 2009

15th Feb Sermon Discussion - “The Blood for the Heart”

  1. Valentine’s day just passed, do you know any love songs about broken hearts? Sing a part of the song or Name the different functions of our “hearts”.
  2. Read Hebrews 10:19-22. There are mainly two kinds of heart condition in the Bible. What are they? Why do we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse our hearts?
  3. Share something or someone that hurt your heart deeply. ( *You can also make some paper hearts and allow the teens write on them if they can’t articulate.) Pray and ask Jesus to cleanse you of the pain (cell leader to minister).
(Click here to read full post)


Wednesday, February 18, 2009

My Whole Life is a Miracle!

My name is Lydia. I’m born into a Christian family. My whole life is a miracle. When I was only a few months old, I was diagnosed of hydrocephalus MENINGTIS. More than 80% of my brain was damaged and the doctors gave me at most one year to live. But today, I am able to stand here to testify that God has kept me. I have gone through 30 operations and I have experienced much of His grace and mercy.

Because of my condition, I’m not able to do well in my studies nor do many things that my friends of my age are able to do. But God gave me a place in this special school, where I have very good teachers who believe in me and I am able to use my talent. I am also surrounded by very good friends. I am very thankful to God for all the people He has surrounded me with especially for my mum and sister. They take good care of me and are always there for me.

Recently, during a medical review, the doctor detected water retention in my brain again. After so many operations and having 3 shunts in my head, the doctors have decided not to do anything about my condition anymore but to just observe me. I was very scared. I do not want to die yet.

Just at this time, my mum signed me up for the encounter weekend. The Lord spoke to me during one of the sessions that “I will be fine and not to worry.” Here, I gave my life, my past and my sickness to Jesus and accepted him in my life. Now, I am not afraid.

This baptism means a lot to me because in 2 Corinthians 5:17, God says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are new.” So, I am trusting God with my life. My time is in His hands. By the way, my name, Lydia means “worshipper of God”. God has blessed me with a beautiful voice. My dream is to be a worship leader and I will live to sing praises to His name.

by Lydia Ang
(Testimony dated 26th December 2008)
(Click here to read full post)


Sunday, February 15, 2009

Our Campus Superstar - Rachael Chang

"I have been experiencing God's grace and love throughout this competition. The spiritual family, my cell leader and sisters, have been very supportive of me. I truly thank God for this spiritual family and for His hands of protection over me in this season of my life. I wanna shine for Jesus!" - Rachael

"I've seen how God is showering His love for her from the start of her salvation till now. She has grown a lot in this journey. Using the gift that God has blessed her with, she took part in this competition to fulfill her late mum's last wish of seeing her sing and win the singing contest.

Her dad's presence has been a great comfort and encouragement as he is very busy with work, seldom spending time with her. But he has been there supporting her in all ways these few Mondays. Bought food for supporters, paying for transport, paying for props and his presence at studio every time she competes etc.

Also, her group of friends who are there without fail every time she competes. Cell group sisters, Daphne and Olivia, helping her with fan blog, making of posters, being there to support her etc. by God's grace, she managed to gain favour from audience and judges." - Shi Ying, Rachel's cell leader

Catch Rachael on Campus SuperStar on Channel U, Monday @ 8:00pm. Vote for her too @ http://css2009.mediacorptv.sg/

Photo source: http://rachaelfc.blogspot.com (Rachael's Fan Club Blog) (Click here to read full post)


Saturday, February 7, 2009

A Family Miracle


Truly, truly there is NOTHING impossible for my God.So mom and i went for the Canto evangelistic play ysd. Wow, i was so amazed by the energy and enthusiasm of the older/elderly. Naturally i found myself dancing along, singing along (to the han yu pin yin), clapping along. The youth should be ashamed of ourselves!!! We are so much younger, there's so many more of us, but the elderly beat us hands down when it comes to passion and energy. This is my first time attending Canto/Hokkein service and it rocked. Even though i don't understand a single word, except for the parts where Paul whispered the translation to me.

So there came a time where Paul whispered, "Ehh i'm tired alr, will stop here for now. Your mom looks like she's enjoying the sermon. You should start praying for her." So i did. I mean, i have been praying, but that was like the crucial moments. And i thought, what have i not prayed for already? So i just prayed, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, please...soften her heart. Help her come to know You. Lord..." It was a plea. And then my mind started kicking in. I'd been praying by faith this time-i truly believed it would come to pass, that today IS the day. But what if it isn't? I was afraid of disappointment, but i told God, "Even if she doesn't receive You today, i believe a seed will be planted and she will come back next week."

And then God said, "Don't pray for her to receive me, that is her choice, I have given her free will. Pray against the barriers that will stop her from coming to know Me-pride, your dad's reaction." And so i did.Altar call time came-i only knew cos everyone started bowing their heads and closing their eyes. I prayed even harder now.

The prayer seemed to go on forever. The Sinner's Prayer begun-i knew cos ppl were repeating what Pastor was saying. I followed. But i didn't hear my mom's voice. Later on, Pastor shouted "1, 2, 3!" and i peeked. I thought i saw my mom raise her hand, but i wasn't sure. But i really think i did. Oh mann. I couldn't believe it. I started to tear.

Pastor asked us to open our eyes and stand up. Paul came with a salvation booklet, grinning. "Someone raised her hand. Guess who?" I could only nod numbly, mum for that moment. As i led my mom down, the tap opened. I started tearing uncontrollably, just couldn't stop. I have waited for this day for 5.5 years. Prayed for 5.5 years. God!!! You are so good. Nothing is impossible for You. God, my mom!! You saved my mom!!

Indeed, seek first Your Kingdom and Your Righteousness, and all things will be added onto me. Amen.After Stella (Paul's sis) prayed for my mom, my mom turned around and comforted me. "Don't cry already girl.." LOL. The irony of it all. I hugged her. Someone from the ministry team came and asked if i needed prayer. Hahaha. How could i explain that they were tears of joy, not sorrow? I simply grinned through my tears and thanked her, but no thanks.

Yupp this is but the beginning of a wonderful journey. Firstly, my mom's gotta be assimiliated. Then my dad. And my sis, to come back to Him."If one in the family is saved, then all shall be saved"This is the promise i have held tightly onto for years. And now, in God's perfect timing, it has been fulfilled-or is in the midst of being fulfilled.

Just the right time, not one moment early, or a moment late. All these years i never once preached to my mom, never forced her to change her religion. But like Angus said, "I can't preach through words, but i can preach through my actions." And i believe she saw. I believe God saw.

May this be a wonderful testimony that will encourage the rest of you to press on, continue believing, continue praying hard. My God, our God, He will never fail.

Jennifer Tan

(testimony dated 8th November 2008)
(Click here to read full post)


My family my hope

So i've been praying about this for a long time, God has been telling me to wash my parents' feet and share to them about His love.. I cooked dinner for them, but my dad act went to work, and only came back at 9 plus. Told him i've something to show them, but he seemed skeptical and like wanted to eat and bathe first. Then while i was talking to Mel on the phone and she was praying for me, my sis walked out. She said i didn't tell her that she had to be there, and she was meeting somebody. I don't know why, but i felt terribly disappointed. Started to tear, i just felt like my plans were ruined. After that i went to my room and started praying, and worshipping God. Found back my peace in Him, knew in my heart that He was in control. Truly, everytime we do something for God's Kingdom, there will be spiritual warfare, and we must be prepared for it, and fight on. The devil will try all means to make us give up. We must not let him win.

So my parents watched the Kelvin Soh video, i think my mom enjoyed it, but my dad was a bit uncomfortable. He's actually quite against Christianity one, cos of idol worshipping. So i kept praying against spirits of idols and pride, and anything that may stop him from being touched by Him...

After the video i shared my testimony, then reviewed the 100k blessings that they chose that last time, to affirm them that God has indeed answered every prayer. After that, i knelt down and apologized to them for all i've done tt's hurt them all these years, and for not being filial in the past. Following which, i attempted to wash their feet..

My dad was super shocked, he jumped and refused to let me wash his feet at first...kept asking me to get up. But i insisted so eventually just dip a bit haha.At the end of everything, i gave them Chinese Bibles. =)

My mom is open, but i think she's not totally committed yet, mostly cos of my dad...i think he still doesnt know that she received Christ. But will be continuing to pray for them. I believe a seed is sown in my dad's heart too, against all odds. Continue to pray hard for your families that are unsaved. It is the Lord's promise that if one in the family is saved, all will be saved. He will definitely keep His promise, if we are faithful in obeying all that He asks us to do. =)

Posted by Jennifer Tan (Click here to read full post)


Singapore Tatler's Top 300 - The Leading Lights of Singapore Society.

Just came back from YN Leaders' Meeting ...Saw a whole lot of new magazines delivered to my house ...Right ... it's the start of a new month ...Picked up the Singapore Tatler Society ...


The feature story was Singapore Tatler's Top 300 - The Leading Lights of Singapore Society.

Hoping if there was a stroke of luck to find my face inside. Alas! No...

But guess who I saw...

So here's marking a difference for another person ... Can we do that?


Why not? We have to think relationally isn't it?

Posted by: Rennie Soh (Click here to read full post)


Thursday, February 5, 2009

What's Up in 2009?

Photobucket (Click here to read full post)