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)

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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

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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)

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

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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).

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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)

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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)