My Notebook

It’s that time of the year where I dust off my boxes and set up our Xmas tree. It’s now adorned with decorations, lights and photos of loved ones. Every year, I wonder why I do it. Why do I put up the Xmas tree? What does it mean for us as a family? Then, I am reminded that under the tree, there will be gifts - gifts for loved ones and the needy. As we give gifts to others, we remember that the greatest gift of all is Jesus. He brings peace and joy to the world to those who put their trust in Him. I have seen many people come and go through church doors, yet some are still so restless. Some still have not found peace and they lack joy. They try to find it in transient things, but in time, when they lose their joy in it, they despair and begin to search for something else. Emotions go up and down. Then, I have seen those who despite tragedy and trials in life, place their trust in Him alone. They are the ones who have found everlasting peace and joy in the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ. So from me to you: Wishing you Jesus this Holiday Season (our peace and joy)!

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

No, I didn’t grow this but I had to blog it. Recently, we took a trip to Haberfield and the bread there was amazing! I had to take some home and take a photo! The open book in the pic is called “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart. Euge is an awesome bread baker and I will eventually post some of his crusty creations.

This is my very first vegie harvest! It was around Christmas time in 2010. I didn’t realise it when I first took the photo but it fits the season.

I grew the snowpeas from seeds using seedling trays and once it got to about 5-7cm in height I transferred them into in a 40cm pot. My backyard is teeny-weeny and the previous owners had paved it into a courtyard. So, I started planting everything in pots. It proved to be a good idea cos in the winter I could move the pots around to a better sunny position.

The cherry tomatoes were grown from seedlings. I picked them up from the local garden store. The variety is called Cherry Bites. Whats amazing about them is that they tastes like little lollies! It was the first time I ate tomatoes straight from the garden so I guess it was my first experience of eating a freshly plucked tomato! I was never a great fan of tomatoes in the beginning but now I LOVE tomatoes!!

As women in today’s society, we’ve been given the opportunities to study and to work. But, as Christian women, we must remember that we do not live for academic achievements nor for career opportunities. Instead, we should see our environment whether it be campus or workplace as our mission field and not our home.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:13 that we “are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Our workplace is our mission field and we are to ’salt’ our environment. In other words, our presence should bring about an obvious difference amongst our friends/colleagues. In my first job, I was working with a young man about my age, and at one particular time, he was rather upset because he heard that his mother was very ill. I offered him my sympathies but what I also did was offer to pray for him and his mother. I can still remember a sense of wonder on his face. This offer of prayer to our Lord was a little bit of salt shaken onto his life. I can personally testify that trying to live as ’salt’ in my various work places, has led me to numerous opportunities in sharing the gospel to people. Their common question to me was, ‘I can see that your Christian beliefs shapes your life. Why is that?’ We need to believe that in Christ, we can ’salt’ our workplaces and they should be able to taste and see the goodness of Christ through us. The passage also warns us that if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Have you become un-salty? Do others see you as being different in a good and nourishing way?

In our workplace, we also need to be like them to win them over to Christ. In 1 Cor 9:19-23 the apostle Paul tells us of his approach to winning over the unbelievers. “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” One thing we must make clear from this passage - the gospel and its blessings are our main priority and we should not be like our unbelieving friends if it causes us to compromise our share in the blessings of the gospel. I remember one time at a work function, my boss in his drunken state asked me ‘If your God told you to lie, would you do it?’. Well, of course the answer to that would be NO because my God is a holy God and He hates sin. So then, what does it mean to be like our friends so that they may be won over? I believe it’s the sharing of common values but the difference being that we do not make those values our idols. One of my work friends values family life. She knows by my personal sharing that I value my family very much. She also knows by my personal sharing that I value my relationship with my Heavenly Father more than my family. I share other similar values with my friend and that is what makes our friendship true. Being like them makes it easier for them to be won over by the gospel.

Then again, we should also not be like them (for they live for themselves). Instead, we are to live a life of such good deeds towards them, that God may be glorified. Another work colleague of mine who was initially very antagonistic towards my Christian faith has since mellowed in his comments. Infact, in the past 10 years of knowing him, seeing my work ethics, he has been telling me to run for mayor in the local council (I find this amusing yet I also give all glory to God). Unbelievers should see our Christian character as described in 1 Peter 2:11,12. Here, Peter the apostle urges us in this manner, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Sadly, I have known of a Christian friend of mine who is faithful and loves teaching the bible in church but in her work environment, faced many conflicts with a particular work colleague of hers and they could not work together. The challenge for my friend was to live a life of goodness towards this work mate so that he may see her good deeds and glorify God for it. Unbelievers are not turned off by our professing faith in Christ but by our character. Our behaviour towards them speaks a thousand words if we want to share the gospel of Jesus to them. We need to live such good lives that they may glorify God when He visits.

Finally, we must also remember to persevere in the face of ridicules or indifference to our faith. In 2 Cor 2:15,16 we are told that “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” If we are ridiculed or they are indifferent to our faith, remember that the message of Christ is like the smell of death to them. Our response to ridicules and indifference should be to continue to do good deeds to them, to be like them to win them, and to keep praying for them. And we need to continue to hope for the Holy Spirit to change their lives by God’s sovereign grace.

In conclusion, we should expect to be ridiculed and feel alienated because of our faith. Remember to forgive for they are dead to the faith and speak only out of ignorance. Yet, their negative comments should NOT be directed towards our character because the Holy Scriptures tells us to live good lives, ’salt’ our workplace and do such good deeds to those around us, that they may be won over. Our workplace is not our home. It is our mission field. As our mission field, we need to offer our non-believing friends the hope that we have in Christ our Lord. Amen.

I love Charles Spurgeon and his daily devotions. I have set it as my home page so that every time I go onto the net, I am reminded to read God’s Word before reading my emails. You can check it out here http://www.spurgeon.org/daily.htm

Sometimes though, the old English can be hard to follow but I have found his devotions so wonderful that from time to time, I want to write my own devotional based on Spurgeon’s original. Here is my first.

And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord. (Leviticus 4:7)

In the days of the high priests and the tabernacle, there was an incredible sense of inaccessibility to our Yaweh. He stood nearly unreachable if it wasn’t for the obedience to the laws and the role of the high priest to offer atoning sacrifices. Yet now, when we look at the blood spread over these offerings on this side of the cross, we must stand amazed. For the mystery of the old testaments unfolds to reveal the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ as the true atonement for our sins once and for all. It is His blood that cleanses us as we stand before our Lord God. Now how did I jump from the old testament blood offerings to Jesus? Lets take a closer look at this altar of sweet incense in the book of Leviticus. This altar of incense was the place where the Israelites presented prayers, requests, thanksgiving and gifts before the Lord. This altar was the aroma of worship to God whether by prayerfully deep repentance of sin, or by heartfelt praise and worship or by gifts and offerings. Yet, even these acts of praise and worship no matter how heartfelt, would’ve still been unacceptable to our Lord God if it hadn’t been for the blood spread by the high priests. We now know it is by the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ that God sees our repentance and worship as acceptable. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus as it is the blood of Jesus that offers the true sacrifice for our sins once and for all (Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 10:19; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 1:17). Our Heavenly Father looks at the merit of Jesus’ work on the cross and then He is pleased with the aroma of prayers, requests, thanksgiving and obedience.

So let us not forget that no matter how heartfelt our prayers of repentance are, or how deeply felt our thanks and praise are to Him – all of it still needs the blood of Jesus every day in every instance of our lives as an atoning sacrifice of our sinful nature. And because of this we give Him thanks and praise forevermore. And let us pray, praise and obey with confidence for in Jesus it is a sweet aroma to our Lord and Creator. Amen.

Thanks to the internet search engines, I get the following hits when I search for “women today are…”.

1. women today are the first generation to effectively have total control of their fertility

2. women today are choosing to stay at home or accept part-time positions to spend more time with their children

3. women today are encouraged by the culture to achieve a very “masculine” kind of autonomy and independence

4. women today are faced with increasing challenges resulting in depression, anxiety and trauma

5. women today are faced with more choices

With results like that, it’s no wonder women (in the 21st Century) are left with more questions than answers. Clive Hamilton in his book ‘The Freedom Paradox. Towards a post-secular ethics.’ says that ‘despite the wealth and the freedom now enjoyed by most citizens of rich countries, we do not appear to be the autonomous, fulfilled individuals we are told our wealth and freedom would bring.‘ This holds true for women and I would also put forward that the women in particular are left even more disillusioned since the feminist movement has also failed to improve the well-being and happiness of women.

Today’s women have wealth, freedom and equal opportunities. Yet depression is an all time high. What women need today is the answer to absolute fulfillment - the good news of Jesus Christ. While Hamilton provides us with a clear understanding of our current human condition, he reasons that the answer to true inner freedom (the freedom to act according to our own will) lies with the ’self’. Self, Hamilton postulates, is guided by our own moral self. The problem I have with his solution is that everyone has a different bar to what the ‘moral self’ is. Hamilton believes that the answer is to be guided by our own ‘moral self’ and this should not contradict the 2 golden rules -  love thyself and do no harm to others. Instantly, I can think of many incidents where a person’s moral bar (no matter how much he/she has reasoned it to be at it’s perfect best) will constantly harm others. We really need to acknowledge our true human condition, that we have no perfect ‘moral bar’. Thus, we need to base ourselves on the only bar worth comparing to - and that is the bar from the One who made us, our God, our Creator.

We first have to acknowledge the depths of our own sinfulness (our rejection of God our Creator) and our inability to bring about happiness to ourselves nor to those we love. Wealth cannot buy happiness. Freedom cannot buy happiness. Equal rights cannot buy happiness. True fulfillment can only come if we are in sync with our Creator and living a life according to His purposes. Being out of sync with our Creator can only mean unfulfilled lives and even worse condemnation. Yet by God’s amazing love for us, He chooses to save us in the person and work of His Son Jesus Christ, who came from heaven as a helpless babe, showing us that He is Lord over all the earth, with His power over nature and even death. For it is by God’s (our Creator) sovereign grace that we are saved, through faith in Christ’s (His Son) saving work by His life, death and resurrection.

Other entries in my blog seeks to express this fulfilment I personally have with my Lord Jesus Christ. I hope to share them with you.

I started teaching Sunday School and running a youth group way before I had kids of my own. Teaching children how to understand the Scriptures and it’s relevancy to our everyday lives are challenging. But none were more challenging than when I had children of my own! In hindsight now, it was much easier to teach a Sunday School class or a Youth Group because it was a set time and my mind was focused on the task at hand. It was a much more different experience to teach and model to my children how the Scripture applies to my life when they see me everyday, all the time - when I’m happy and when I’m sad, when I’m tired and when I’m mad!!

Children are copy-cats. Like the advertisement says “Children see. Children do.” They will follow your actions and speech in a similar manner - which makes sense because where else would they learn social norms from? If I shout at them, they will copy me and shout at others to get their way - even when I repeatedly ‘tell’ them not to shout. If I grab something from them, they will grab from others, even when I repeatedly ‘tell’ them to ask first. As a parent, I face this challenge everyday - How do I teach my kids Scriptural truths?

Firstly, I am thankful to know that we are inherently sinful parents, weak in our very own nature and in great need of Christ’s saving sacrifice each moment of our lives. This is why when I get angry and shout at my kids, I can rest on God’s sovereign grace to forgive me. I can repent and confess when I have wronged God and that I need His forgiveness. I also need my children s’ forgiveness. My children know I am not perfect but they also know I depend on our Lord Jesus who is. I have often asked my son to pray for me when I’m getting irritable. I think he prayed for me every day at one stage!!

Today, I still enjoy teaching Sunday School at church, but I know the main classroom setting is my home. I learnt I have to work very hard at giving my children loads of love and affection as I’m naturally a task-oriented person. I wisely determine when a hard word is required and punishment needs to be in place but it’s primarily loads of love and affection to my kids. My favourite time is when I’ve tucked the kids into bed at night and I spend time sitting on their beds letting them ask me questions about Scriptural truths. This is a different approach as opposed to ‘telling’ them Scriptural truths. They have developed an expectation to these night chats to ask the deepest questions any faithful parent could ask for in their kids. Questions like “How do you know the Bible is true?”, or “How do I know I am saved?”. This is my most treasured time.

My husband has also developed in my son good bible reading habits. Every morning, my son will wake up and read his bible using a devotional book. My son is currently 7 years old. I love going up to my son’s room and reading though his devotional book where he has put his own thoughts and answers down. His written answers tells me whether he is understanding who his Creator is and how important Jesus is to him.

We’ve developed prayer times for every occasion - not just in the usual meal and night time. We pray each day when we walk to school and we pray in the car before reaching church on Sundays. I recently found out that my 5 year old daughter prays with other believers during recess/lunch time.

We involve them in our ministries when serving people. My son has sat with me numerous times when caring to women in crisis. He has now developed a real gift in praying for those in need and who are hurting!

Children’s ministry is now my life long vocation, especially to my own kids. It begins with how I model my Christian life and follows with how I instill Christian disciplines in them (not because they have to but because they want to) so that they may grow in the knowledge and love for Jesus themselves.

On Sunday, a very godly and humble man came to speak at my church. As a way of introduction to this speaker, he was asked what were the 3 most important things that have happened in his life. After a brief pause his response was this, “It seems that in my life, the most insignificant things became the most significant things that has ever happened in my life.”

God is sovereign and as followers of Jesus, He has good plans for us. Paul tells us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:27-29 . Being saved is not just a one off event. He continually and actively works in us, giving up His Son to save us in order to continue to bring about goodness in us. What an amazing grace!

So we know that as saved people, God has a purpose for us. Yet, as saved people we continue to waste so much time planning for things that seem to have a purpose in our lives, but in God’s plan are so insignificant. We need a shift in perspective. How much time do we spend pouring over our financial budget and for our future or for that next holiday? We need to ask ourselves, are these things significant in the light of God’s purpose for us?

Moreover, we need to seriously take on those seemingly insignificant things in life that actually leads to a life of faithfulness and obedience. Like pressing the OFF button on a TV remote (which takes only 1 second to do) to spend a quiet moment in spiritual silence, reflection and prayer. We can refrain from making a damaging or critical remark to a loved one (only a moment to do but can save a lifetime of damage). Just one insignificant thing that we do or don’t do, or say or don’t say, can become the most significant things in our lives and to those around us.

This is now a good moment to shut down the machine, turn off the TV and sit in a moment of silence. Allow time to pray and reflect about your day - what you have done and not done. Read the bible, call a spiritual friend, write a note of encouragement to someone in need and pray for them – the list of seemingly insignificant things are endless. We are saved, so we need to live as saved ones. Col 3:1 reminds us, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Amen.

Missy is a happy 8-year-old girl who loved to dance, sing and cut paper dolls. She also went to school with her older sisters and brother and was in Year 3.

One day, Missy saw her Mum at school talking to her teacher. “That’s odd.” Missy thought to herself, “What’s Mum doing at school?” Missy soon forgot all about it when the bell rang to return to class.

When Missy arrived home. Her mum and dad called her into the room. “Missy.” Dad said to her, “You’ve really disappointed us today. Your teacher tells us you have to repeat your class again.” Missy’s dad continued talking but by then Missy had stopped listening. Missy had disappointed her parents! Nothing else in the world was more important than her mum and dad’s view of her. And to see their sad faces looking at her devastated Missy.

That night, Missy was so sad she couldn’t sleep. Missy cried and cried that night. She was so sad at disappointing her mum and dad that she truly wanted to die.

At that moment of great sadness, Missy heard a comforting word in her head. “Missy, don’t cry. I am with you.” Missy felt comforted by those words and she sat on her bed and prayed. “Dear God. If you are there, can you please help? I am so sad. I made my mum and dad sad. Please, please, please take this sadness away.”

As Missy finished praying, she could see her room getting brighter. Missy looked out of her window and saw the sun coming up, getting bigger and brighter over the trees. Missy felt warmed from the growing sunlight and knew at that moment that God was really with her. God had listened to her cries and God wanted her to know that He loved her very much.

Missy went to sleep knowing that she had met God that night. And she was at peace.

As years went on and Missy grew up to be a young lady, Missy never forgot the night she met God. Now, when she reads the part of the bible that says “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13, Missy knows how true that is. Missy knows that God thought of her and knew her before she was even born. God made her with tender love and care and for a purposeful life. Missy also knows that as she continues living in this world, God will never leave her and will always look after her.