Neverfall

 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:3-11

14 Days Later

Two weeks is enough to make the lives of two people and their family go really crazy.

But I believe that God will land this haywire flight that we’re experiencing.

Speaking of landing flights, here’s a funny comic that made me happy today.

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From Buttersafe.com

Romans 12 Part 1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 1:1

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Romans 12 has always been a special chapter for me. Mostly because it houses a few of my all time favourite verses. Here’s what I think of the first verse.

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Beseech

Beseech is like a pleading. Imploring. An urgent and deep request.

Mercies of God

‘By the mercies of God’. For me this is like saying ‘according to how much God has allowed you to be blessed to’ or ‘to endure’ or ‘to give’.

Living Sacrifice

Here’s a typical war movie scene. A small team of good guys are being chased by an army of baddies with big guns. One of the good guys get injured and says ‘don’t bring me along, I’ll only be a burden. Leave me here. I’ll slow them down’. After the emotional scene, the good guys leave and turn the corner just in time as the bad guys turn up. They have a shoot out with this hero. But the hero gets killed. And as the baddies rush past the hero’s dead body to catch up with the good guys, the hero unclenches his fist with a grenade in his hand. It explodes and kills off even more of the baddies.

This hero is the sacrifice. He sacrificed himself. But he had to die. A death sacrifice.

A living sacrifice actually sounds like an oxymoron. Yet, I think it makes sense. Because God deserves more than just a death sacrifice. A death sacrifice is easy. You just feel for the people you leave behind – for a short moment – then it’s all gone.

A living sacrifice demands more out of us. Our life involves a lot more than our death. In life there is growth. There is learning. There are responsibilities. There are people. There’s time. There are wants and desires. There’s love. There’s abilities and skills. There’s health. There’s emotion. There are worries and fears. There are beliefs and ideas. There’s personality. There’s wealth and material things. There’s hope. Well, that’s a lot to constantly let go of.

How do we then become a living sacrifice? For me, it’s to be constantly aware of what we do. And to constantly decide to obey God. Now that is what I call difficult.

Imagine your time, your relationships, your priorities, your energy, your skills, your personality, your actions, your thoughts, all spent on someone else. It’s almost like when you have a girlfriend or a baby. Your whole life will be devoted to this person that you love. Except, for God, it’s more complete. Our whole life is required. Everything? Everything. Now that’s tough.

Then, if devoted properly, if what we decide and do is what God desires, we will be holy. Holy just means right before God’s eyes. Clean. Sin is the opposite which means wrong before God’s eyes. When we are holy, it will be acceptable to God.

Reasonable Service

In Greek, the word ‘reasonable’ is ‘logikos’. As in Rational or Logical. Being a living sacrifice is the logical thing to do. After what Jesus has done, after knowing who God is, knowing what an amazing life and path He has set us on right now, and knowing that His love for us is the reason for everything, it will be irrational and illogical to not give your whole life and being as a sacrifice to God! It will be irrational and illogical not to love God!

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If you’re asking ‘So who is God?’ and ‘What kind of path did He set us on now?’, you’re asking the right question. The bible is filled to the brim with God’s character and God’s promises and God’s plan for us. And also very importantly, who we are to God. So start reading the bible now! If you need help, drop me a message or just comment below.

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So these are thoughts I have when I read this verse. That’s all for now.

Ciao~

Very Impressive *Insert Impressed Eyebrows*

Sometimes we try to be humble and say that we aren’t doing a certain thing to impress anyone. We say that we’re just doing it because we love doing it or because it’s who we are. But I think doing this is trying too hard to be humble.

It is quite good not to seek attention or glory from other people. But then we can forget that we should want to impress someone: God. Our Father is just waiting for us to make Him proud. He’s given us all the skills, talent, gifts, and anointing that we need. He’s just waiting to say “Wow, well done Aaron. I’m so proud of you. Now go and do even better.”

Let’s do well because we want to Glorify God.

Burn Like Lava

This is exciting :))

I’m looking forward to a bright future ahead. I’m getting butterflies in my stomach thinking about everything.

God, You are great. I hope I’m doing alright in Your eyes as well.

Cambodia Round Two Short Report

I learned a lot from this 5 day 4 night trip to Cambodia.  There was a camp in a village where 130 teens  and children (from 13 different villages) stayed for 2 nights. We taught the children and teens about Jesus and God’s truth about them. We were the overseas guest speakers in a way. Then after that was over, we had one afternoon to encourage the teachers and leaders that their ministry was an important one, and also to give some skills and tools to teach about Jesus to their students.

I may not be able to account too detailed about this trip, cuz too much has happened. But I’ll try to explain briefly the things that has impacted me or things I have learned.

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Trust

We prepared the best that we could. Program. The word of God. Games. Song and dance. Stories. And even a drama (that we didn’t practice). It wasn’t perfect. I still had some things that I didn’t really have time to finalize. But I just prayed and trusted God to lead me. I did have a bit of time in Cambodia to do last minute preparation, but it still wasn’t enough and I really relied on Him. It was stressful but I believe God spoke and that all hearts were touched by Him. No lack of preparation or fear can stop God from moving if we really commit ourselves and commit what we can do to Him.

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Hungry

The people of Cambodia are hungry. Hungry for the truth. Hungry for salvation.

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One Man Can Make A Change

It’s amazing how one man who loves God and has God’s compassion and passion can change a whole village and it’s surrounding villages.

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Stars

The night sky in the village looked so amazing. When all lights are off, the stars came out. We all know that. What I didn’t know is that the stars could come out anyway, as long as I block out the light. There was a long long moment one night when all Joey and I did was sit outside and stare upwards. But we had to use our hands to block out the lights from the village and the spotlight that was shining at the dancing crowd (yeah we had an outdoor disco for the teens and children at night).
It reminded me that we have to focus to see glory. We have to block out the distractions that are glaring right into our senses. And then just sit back and enjoy God’s glory.

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Children

It’s been a long time since I really ministered to children. And two things about their heart that really reminded me about why Jesus asked us to be like children.

First of all, their willingness to learn. The saying ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ is kinda true. The older we get, the less we are able to remember. Children remember quickly and are so willing to learn. Also, there is very little pride in them. So, they don’t just pick and choose. They don’t take a lesson for granted.

Secondly, intimacy to the small details. Once, I had a group of about 30+ teens and children. They were each given a piece of a photo that was cut into rectangles. The instruction was to piece the puzzle pieces together to get the full picture. After they were done, I asked if they remembered their original puzzle piece. And they all did. If it was me, I would have forgotten the small detail and remembered the big picture, or the main point.

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These are just a few things that I have learned on this journey. I’ll blog more next time.

If you have anymore questions for me about what we did or why, do feel free to message or comment.

Cheerio!

Who Wants Jesus?