Androne's Thinkspace

"Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, have already happened Yesterday, is happening Today, and will happen..."

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:18:35 +0800

“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, have already happened Yesterday, is happening Today, and will happen Tomorrow. Because when Tomorrow comes, it’ll still be Today! That is why you have to learn to deal with Today, because it’ll always be Today! All you have to work with is Today!”

- A.R. Bernard

"Contemporary" Christianity

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:26:18 +0800

Art is the very expression of the human soul and spirit. To be immersed into a particular art, whether through pictures, paintings, videos, songs, dance, literature, festivities, etc - is to be immersed into that very soul/spirit of the artist. Popular culture shapes our society at large, while art shapes us at an individual level (in values, behaviour, beliefs and personality). Like they always say, we are what we believe - and hear, and see, and practice - whether expressed outwardly or unexpressed inwardly.

Therefore, there is nothing wrong with artistic or creative Christianity. A person can either be expressive about lust, or expressive about love. One can be expressive about anger, or expressive about forgiveness. One can be expressive about stinginess, while the other can be expressive about generosity. The list goes on. “Vibrant, dynamic Christianity” as we know it, is merely what we call expressive Christianity. Likewise, the opposite applies and so, on the other end of the spectrum, we have what we can presumably call - suppressed Christianity.

Balance is the key, but not neutrality. One must first be filled, in order to overflow.

None of us are perfect, and not all of us are expressive by nature. But let’s strive to be expressive and progressive in faith, in hope and in love. Believe and keep on believing. Confess and keep on confessing. Visualize and keep on vizualizing. Because God has called us to live a life from glory to glory, strength to strength, faith to faith.

It’s not how we begin that matters, its not even the destination that matters. What matters is the journey. Which is why Paul calls it the Christian WALK, or the RACE of Faith. The Christian life is now.

So what if we’ve believed but nothing happened? So what if we had faith but things didn’t turn out the way they should? God is looking for someone who would believe more today than yesterday, someone who would love and forgive more today than yesterday, someone who would encourage more today than yesterday, regardless of what yesterday was like.

Be blessed.

The real iron man..

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:50:05 +0800

The real iron man..

The best electrical engineer - GOD.

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:09:05 +0800

The best electrical engineer - GOD.

Think twice before abortion. Think 4 times more before...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:59:36 +0800

Think twice before abortion. Think 4 times more before pre-marital sex.

Is God Fast Or Slow In Answering Our Prayers?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:20:31 +0800

As I was doing my mini workout in my room just now…this question just dawned upon me and HS spoke in my heart, “Andrew, what do you think?”

After a moment of solitude in the shower, the Lord shared with me about answering prayers.

The truth is, God isn’t slow. In fact, He is never slow. On top of that, He lives in Eternity! His realm has totally no concept of Time. His power flows outside of the realm of Time. We live in a 3D world, He lives in the 4th Dimension.

Many times we feel God doesn’t answer our prayers, whenever we want it, the way we want it to…sometimes it may even feel He doesn’t respond to our faith because I’m sure, many of us have had faith in our prayers.

For the newborn baby Christian, God might play the role of the Sugar Daddy. We make prayers like, “God, if You’re real, do this for me, do that for me.” When God pampers us, we feel overjoyed and we love God even more.

No doubt there is a stage of Christian growth, where God will do that and He allows it so that we can love Him more and enter into a deeper relationship with Him. But as we grow and mature, discipleship has to take place.

Every great apostle and hero of Faith didn’t live easy-peasy lives. They lived OVERCOMING lives. There were challenges, but there were also breakthroughs. There were heartaches, but there were also seasons of harvest.

As young, infant Christians, we will never be able to fully grasp the full concept of the Cross, until we decide to forsake all and carry our cross daily to follow Him. Yes, the Cross speaks of many great exchanges and great blessings, but it also speaks of suffering, trials and temptations.

Therefore to cling on to the Cross means to cling on to blessings AND sufferings. Does it mean God is a saddistic God? Of course not. Carrying the Cross means: WALKING THROUGH SUFFERING, CARRYING GOD’S BLESSINGS! It’s not living a life of sufferings without faith, neither is it living a life of faith without pain, its about having FAITH in spite of SUFFERING, having HOPE in spite of HOPELESSNESS, having JOY in the midst of PERSECUTION!

Back to my question. So then how is God fast in answering our prayers?

Simple.

He answers 3 ways:

1. Yes

2. No

3. Wait

He doesn’t keep silent. Silence simply means WAIT.

There you go. He has already answered our prayers. Let’s give Him credit for that. For being swift to answer and for answering EVERY prayer. ;)

Let’s stop arguing and reasoning in our heads why God doesn’t answer our prayers, why God doesn’t love us, when all we ever wanted, lets be honest: Is for God to do whatever we tell Him to!

No one commands a plane to land or to take off, when the runway isn’t cleared.

When God says wait, or no, let’s stop being a crybaby, pull our act together, cast our worries on Him because He cares for us, and MOVE ON. If we don’t clear the runway, we can wait till Jesus comes back and we would still not be able to takeoff.

Instead of getting all bitter as to why God isn’t “doing what we tell Him to” (which most of us call “Prayer”), let’s humble ourselves and seek Him as to what needs to be done FIRST. :) The Christian walk is a walk of faith, a life of seeking and dependence on God.

Yes, God responds to faith. But God primarily moves through RELATIONSHIP.

If God moves through faith, then the world would be doomed a long time ago because the demons are having “faith” that all of us should perish! And mind you, the demons aren’t just sitting by proclaiming the promises of Satan, they are actually living it out! Even they understand that faith is an act! Haha.

On a side note, demons are ex-angels who lived in God’s presence before Lucifer’s rebellion. So they know how the Kingdom of God works, more than most of us do. ;)

At the end of the day, God is always good. Even if He is silent, He is silently good! Even if He rejects our requests, He rejects for our good.

Nothing hurts a person more than to accusing him of being bad and hating him for not meeting our expectations, when everything he has done for us, he has done it for our good and with the best he knows how.

And what is the root of it all? PRIDE. And SELF.

It’s so easy to focus on our own needs when we are in lack isn’t it? God wants us to focus on Him. Yes, we have needs. But isn’t that what a relationship is all about? - Forsaking our own needs for the needs of others. Like the saying goes: When we build God’s house, He will build our house.

God CAN make everything change in the blink of an eye. But He doesn’t. He wants us to learn to grow and mature in faith and in character.

Whenever we are down, we often encourage ourselves by saying, everything happens for a reason. I can make a good guess, 75% of the time, we are thinking: Everything happens for a reason…yes…OUR reason. - FAIL.

Isn’t it true? :)

Today, let’s settle it in our minds. Everything happens for a reason…yes…HIS reason! :)

Let’s not grow weary in doing good. But let’s not do it for the wrong motives either. Who knows, while we choose to move on and change our attitudes, God might just drop a surprise along the new path that’s even better? :)

All things are possible.

What matters is our heart. :)

Photo

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:28:22 +0800

Photo

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:23:52 +0800

Photo

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:57:09 +0800

"Love is all about the willingness to give up all, to make someone’s life a little happier, a..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:52:02 +0800

“Love is all about the willingness to give up all, to make someone’s life a little happier, a little easier, a little more comforting, a little better. :)”

- Andrew

"Don’t be afraid to take risks. But be VERY AFRAID to risk losing your relationship with God..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:45:00 +0800

“Don’t be afraid to take risks. But be VERY AFRAID to risk losing your relationship with God and your salvation.”

- Andrew

"Dating is all about charm and impressiveness, but when it all boils down to marriage and the..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:41:00 +0800

“

Dating is all about charm and impressiveness, but when it all boils down to marriage and the decision to live together, it’s all about values & personality.

I think being able to live together with someone has got nothing to do with looks or deeds, but really, it’s Personality. If at a person’s worst, he is still pleasant and approachable, willing to tone down and listen, not afraid to admit his mistakes, share his hurts openly, I think it’s an invaluable gift.

”

- Andrew

"God shall supply all your needs. Not all your decision-making. Make the right choice first, then..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:10:17 +0800

“God shall supply all your needs. Not all your decision-making. Make the right choice first, then trust in Him to supply all that’s required and more.”

- Andrew

Photo

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:52:45 +0800

Photo

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:40:55 +0800

This is how rain looks like from up there…

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:08:54 +0800

This is how rain looks like from up there…

Megachurches - Prestige VS Feeding the Poor

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:19:00 +0800

Quoting a Wall St Article on Megachurches:

“When the Founders made churches tax exempt it was because most churches were incredibly poor, and couldn’t afford to pay taxes. I seriously doubt that they would have wanted people to turn their religion into a multi-million dollar business. Jesus abhorred excessive wealth, how do Mega Churches line up with what he taught?”

Here’s what I feel..

Christianity is 2fold. The vertical beam of the cross speaks of loving God. The horizontal beam speaks of loving people. The vertical beam being the longer of the 2. (Which is worse? Blessing the people and neglecting God? Or blessing God with passionate devotion and neglect the needs of others?)

We can start by considering 2 well known examples:

1. Jesus venting His frustration on people who turned the house of God into a den of thieves. - Jesus said that His House is to be a house of prayer, of praise or worship, of ministry, etc.

2. The woman who broke the costly alabaster flask of perfume and poured it on Jesus. Jesus later rebuked Judas, who was only concerned about money made a statement, “What a waste. This perfume could be sold and given to the poor.”

If it were me, I’d say its worse to neglect God of the honor and the worship He is due. However, neglecting people is wrong too, though not “as bad” as grieving God’s Spirit.

As believers, I believe we are all called to love both God and people. I’m sure in this day and age, there are many legitimate megachurches who not only have mega buildings, but with it comes mega ministries as well. Usually, the ministries are global in outreach, or at least community centred.

There are many reasons for a megachurch. A thriving ministry with a land constraint in a country is one of them. I would accept this picture and the message brought out by the poster, if it was a megachurch in the middle of a rural slum. But if it’s a megachurch in a thriving urban city, I don’t see what’s the problem.

A picture of an auditorium or a church building alone, doesn’t always represent the full values or the mission of any church, although they do bring what we call, a First Impression.

Just like the Gospel, a ministry is not meant to be observed, its meant to be experienced and if we’re passionate about Christ, to be involved in it.

No doubt there are megachurches who are self-driven, but yet, there are also humble “not as well off” churches, that do nothing for the community.

At the end of the day, none of us should judge, worse still, to judge our fellow brothers and sisters. Causing division and bringing disunity is one of the abominations that the Lord hates.

Just to show I’m not just siding the megachurches, in fact I’m not taking any sides other that what I feel the Word of God has taught me and its principles - Don’t look down on traditional churches either. They’re probably the ones your grandparents would go to if they were saved. And what’s contemporary now, may not be as “contemporary” in the future, knowing God’s works are from glory to glory and each generation does the greater work. I’m sure we don’t want our kids to judge us for being “traditional” in their eyes.

The gospel is a message of love. I’m sure God is a God of variety, there are megachurches, humble family churches, traditional churches, contemporary churches - God loves them all and He has catered a wide variety of styles and settings to reach out to a broad spectrum of peoples and communities in every generation and continent.

What we as the church and as believers should do, should be to love and minister (both to God and people) in a way that works best. Whether mega or small, trad or contempo, we do it all for the glory of God.

If you’re not marrying someone, you’re just...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:33:57 +0800

If you’re not marrying someone, you’re just horny.

LOL

Seen a case of your typical immature relationship. - Girl goes gaga over hot celeb. Guy ignores and...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:10:25 +0800

Seen a case of your typical immature relationship. - Girl goes gaga over hot celeb. Guy ignores and tries to express mutual interest. Guy tries to blend in with his girl, so he goes gaga over a hot model and says shes so damn hot, hoping to strike a mutual connection with his gf. Girl gets jealous, angry and starts a quarrel. - Seriously…priest lah~ Ni wei she mo hai mei grow up ne~ If you’re in a relationship please act like you’re attached. Don’t do unto others what you don’t want them to do to you. Just because Lady Gaga is a lady, it doesn’t mean only ladies can gaga right? Priest lah~ People become who they follow. And you’re going to attract people who as like-minded as you.

"tingisnotatweet: RT @thisisCaleb: RT @craiggroeschel: You don’t need fewer problems, you need..."

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:26:41 +0800

“tingisnotatweet: RT @thisisCaleb: RT @craiggroeschel: You don’t need fewer problems, you need more of God. @MaxLucado”