lately...

sometimes you're required to die to live again and no i'm not being morbid. and no i'm not talking about a physical death. so rest. in. peace.

lately ive been thinking to myself that that love is truly painful unless you get to express it. i mean mostof you can identify with the crush you know who would never take a second glance at you,( or if he/she does, its in mock horror-in my case, definitely got.), the undenied love of youth. or something along these lines.

which is why God went to great lengths just to express His love on the cross. and after that even though its truly finished, as He said so himself, He never really stopped, in my opinion, He keeps going on. demonstrating little/big acts of love throughout the day which i've been recipient to.

and that brought me to think about how i've expressed my love for Him lately because i wanto and not because i have to because i've been kinda overwhelmed by negativity, love, comfort and hope of late. and i just wanto do/say something to show Him that is not just of gratitude and relief but (as if to reassure His insecurity) that at the very end of the day, my heart belongs to Him and Him alone still, and that i truly (most of the time anyway) cherish Him and His presence in my life.

and last night i was brought to that opportunity whereby a simple opportunity presented itself for me to express that kind of love whereby i had to give up something akin to cutting out a piece of my flesh. i can't explain nor go into detail here coz its just too personal..even though my audience is clearly my closest group of friends. sometimes i feel like in this journey with Him, i've to die a thousand times at least everyday, to yield to let Him have His way because sad to say, the flesh still holds alot of selfish dreams and ambitions. cowardice still stands(shaking) in the face of the taunts of the fake-o roaring lion. i guess thats what surrender is about and i know it delights God's heart and i know inspite of the pain that threatens to kill, and does kill, there is a resurrection of life that follows and that life is sheer zoe. and i've been there so many times. whereby i had to die to myself.and i remember that as i stood there dying in the past, i knew that was the turning point, i knew that it would never be the same again and i knew that moment, somehow i had a faith that just gave me a confidence in God that He does love me so much and will truly take care of everything.


i'm not ashamed to admit that i'm a coward through and through and sometimes i know its out of His love for me that He wants me to take that step into the unknown despite the fear. that its His love that compels Him to want me to give certain things up that are utterly detrimental to the well-being of me. and i know myself that these steps in life are to be taken myself, that no one else can take them for me. sure i can lean on His strength and hold His handbut at the end of the day, i have to make the decision to relinquish my own strength and go ahead and do the deed.

its the slaying of the giant/dragon and unfortunately that dragon lives me in. conversely,fortunately, the dragon slayer oso lives in me. hence, the turmoil and the battle thats waged in me. and despite it being in me, i just have to watch and standby and watch because 'the battle belongs to the Lord'

can someone understand my frustration andmake sense out of my ramblings?its sad not to be understood and its even sadder when everyone thinks they know you when you know they all know just a part of you. i keep toomany secrets, even from you guys and everyone knows a different secret, never the entire picture.

i am a master architect and i build walls so thick(around my heart) and now i concede that maybe i'm the only one who can scream it down in joshua/jericho saga fashion. sometimes there is no room for sentimentalism (something i often fall prey to) and u just have to burn ur diary/blog and start all over again. like how God would have to create a new heaven and earth. theres really nothing left in me that i wanto salvage. nothing good so i have to start all over again. and contrary to some of my friends who truly do love me, i know this is not an instance of low self esteem. (friend, i'll explain to you another day)

its really ok to be in the dark, when you know whose voice you can trust. its ok to give up, coz more will be added, its ok to die because resurrection will come. its really more than ok.

because Jesus loves me.

not the same

hez moved to tanah merah for a week already and i'm still not used to it.

no more bus rides from clementi to clementi with him. no more staying on in 189 despite reaching my stop because i just want a few more minutes with him. its so hard to say goodbye, despite being together for 30 over months.

no more 'meet you in 20 minutes' dinners at clementi eating spring chicken and drinking coconut juice.

no more supermarketing for groceries together.

no more lazing and hanging out at his pigsty. watching tv, doing laundry and plonking asleep after that.

until we get to go home together always and always.

i hope its soon.

randoms

1)a few nights ago i think i sleepwalked.

i was walking and apparently dreaming at the same time when i walked into a wall. of coz in my dream that wall was an assailant of some sort and i wanted to defend mysslf so used my arm to shield myself and hit against the 'assailant'.-think kungfu- so now i got a two bruises lah.but mr wall is fine and standing.

2)yesterday, isaac and i conquered mount faber. by cable car. it was like beautiful beautiful beautiful lah. i mean our view was just nothing but hdb flats. grr. but nvm. still quite romantic. at least cable car ride was just in time for sunset. so everything was good. we watched the sun plop into the water and drowned. *bloob bloob *and i was so happy because its been so hot for so many days. isaac stood there stunned and woodblockish (i've been on a woodblock calling rampage) and waited eagerly for more until i dragged him away. i think he was expecting fireworks to pop out of the water.

3)today i had driving lessons with an instructor from hell who kept criticising me with the nastiest sacarstic remarks saying i will not be able to pass blah blah blah and that i drive a car like im driving a lorry or a bus. that i have no leg/eye /hand coordination at all. blah blah blah.

4) met up with glacey for lunch and we ended up parasiting coffee bean and mos burger by holding on to a drink that we brought from the FOODCOURT. but there were alot of chimneys around and eventually we had to go home.

5) i am very sleepy. i have driving again tomorrow.

i'll be praying, He'll be answering.

i'm blessed to have Him my whole life and blessed to have him for the rest of my walk on earth.

its been a rocky thorny path (yet again) for isaac and i and i wanto offer the deepest thanks to the third party in our relationship (Jesus Christ) for constantly mediating, ironing out difference, reconciling, diciplining and helping us to see each others' needs before our's and most of all, supplying an abundance of hope when i have nothing left in me that can possibly see good.. i thank God that through my hissy fits and screaming, through his block headedness which nv fails to exasperate on a bad day and amuse and endear on a good day, the love is still there. and most of all, i figure, as long as our commitment stands unto God, as long as Jesus sits on the throne, i have hope and access to the very power that is required to overcome anything, healing to mend every brokeness and passion to fuel every lacklustreness.

i am relieved to know that Jesus intervenes at every level of our relationship when communication fails us. when i can no longer convey my frustrations and choose to keep them bottled up instead because words fail me. but i thank God words fail because a picture paints a thousand words and one night, He painted a picture, dropped it into my beloved blockhead's conciousness and he saw what i was really going through and what was hurting our relationship.

so contrary to all my wondering of whether Jesus sees when u cry alone in the dark, i will stand up and attest to the unchangeble fact that HE DOES. HE SEES YOUR PAIN FEELS YOUR PAIN AND HEALS YOUR PAIN.

i love my savior. He truly saves in every which way possible.

so today i was praying for him, coz its the best thing we can do for each other. when all its said and done, sometimes all it takes is a prayer. my prayers were on the Lord helping him to overcome his weaknesses now that he has met them, and that ungodly sorrow (despair) will not touch him but he will lean on Him always and always no matter how many dead ends we meet. this is because right now both of us seem to be stuck in a rut, and we're basically feeling lost and directionless. we don't know what we're to become, what we're supposed to do because everything we've known to do, we are no longer capable of doing. our previous capabilities have been stripped bare.

(little did i guess that thats perfect reason to rejoice. )

and upon finishing the prayer, i found myself walking to the shelves in the living room and picking up the oswald chambers devotional that my dad bought earlier but nv touched (it happens a lot. i have a library of clean untouched books) and i saw this..

Our Lord said to paul, in effect ( on the road to Damascus)"Your whole life is to be empowered and subdued by Me, you are to have no end, no aim no purpose but Mine.

and the Lord also says to us, " You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go

paul was not even a message or doctrine to proclaim, He was brought into a vivid, personal overpowering relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul had to be devoted to a person and not a cause.

am just overwhelmed right now. just wanto scream my blessedness!

let it go- corrine may

i think we've been here before
i recognize this place
i've seen the marks of confusion
wipe out a single sign of grace
and i don't want to play anymore
not when the stakes are so high
so before we circle round once more
i'm gonna lay down
lay down my
pride

let it go
let it be
don't waste all your emotion on this
tit-for-tat machine
let it go
let it be
let it go

i turn on the TV
and it screams out at me
nothing seems to have changed
since the start of adam and eve
so we're waiting for the sky to fall
and we're buying brand new toys
but before we circle round once more
can we lay down
just lay down this pride

let it go
let it be
don't waste all your emotion on this
tit for tat machine
let it go
let it be
let it go
don't go wasting your emotions
no one wins if we keep score
let it go
let it be
let it go

i love him.

think a lot. talk a lot.

i hate those watchful judgmental eyes that widens everytime i make a mistake.

and i hate how often i go wrong when i watch those watchful eyes watching me.

its ironic i know and its really hard to explain. yet, i am nonetheless the same. i pass judgments not just on wrong deeds but on the person. adam would be dead meat in my hands because somehow or the other, i delight not in mercy. i can't understand why some people purposefully do the wrong that they know will result in a massive chain-effect that will hurt many others, especially the ones they love.

i see, so i judge and i hurt.

there is such a fine line to judging and sin and not the person. its so hard to separate a man from his deed which is no wonder only God can still call us righteous when we sin so carelessly everyday. How He can still be a just God. I marvel at that that ONE man can truly take on the punishment of this sick sin-filled world.

never really gave much thought as to why God would reserve judgment only for Himself. i thought it shdnt be a big deal to pass that mantle also to us since He was the one who made us kings and high priests. one more to add to our CV really wouldn't hurt until late last night.

i was hopping mad over the wrong some people did. i kept meditating on it and the more i thought, the angrier i became. i saw how God time and again gave them chances to repent, called them back through various means, diciplined them with love and yet they willfully vehemently actually refused His ways. and i condemned them in my heart.

unbeknownst to me, there was an ache deeper in my heart which i could'nt detect. i didn't love these said people very much in the natural but the ache was still there.

when i felt the ache, i saw the heart of God.

He reserved judgment for Himself not just because He is rightfully the only one qualified to judge, not just because it involves the partaking of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil' all over again, not just because he knows its difficult to for me to differentiate between the deed and the man...not just because of all that...

but because He wanted to save me the pain from executing judgment. because judgment, is painful. judgment resulted in the crucifixion of the Son of God. judgment will result in catastrophes etc. judgment will pain the heart of God even as the hand executes it. judgment results in eternal separation. there is so much more to judgment than i can ever comprehend.

***
attended an interesting sermon with terry mize at new crea last week with candice. His sermon made me think and i like sermons that make me think coz it is evidence that God is interacting with me and i hate just swallowing by faith because...i'm hard to please. and i might swallow a bone or two. (he who has ears, let him hear)

he talked about spiritual authority and how whoever we give our spiritual authority to will affect us in a very tremendous way. which explains why sometimes if a stranger who darzen care two hoots about you is prayed for by you, there is hardly any effect coz he also darzen care two hoots about your so-called spiritual authority.

and this part got me thinking..which goes to say how much spiritual authority I give unto Him must be very important too. and i know of only too many areas in my life and heart that are not totally yielded to Him. shall not make an open confession here before watchful eyes (Read above) but now i see why certain areas of my life are not bearing fruit as they used to or ever at all!because i couldn't give it up to Him. because i still want SOME control. because I AM STUPID!

sigh.
selah.tired already

anything that's special in me is you.

1.27 am

i suddenly feel like listening to the meteor garden soundtrack but i'm too lazy to look for it.

i wonder if Jesus reads my blog. i wonder if He knows Hez the reason why i write, the reason i live and breathe and the reason i haven't given up. Hez the star of this blog (and the bright and morning star also lah)

i'm wondering how life will eventually turn out but i'm not hasty and gan cheong abt it anymore. (maybe because i'm sedated)

i was counting my blessings (namely people in my life) and when i lost count, i broke down and cried. because i have too much. that money cannot buy. goodness does dissolve fat and bones. i melted away that moment.

i also realised that the fighter in me is still alive. (so is the weird kooky humour) its just wounded that's all.

the smile faded somewhat but it'll make a comeback. 1 million megawatts this time i promise. (watch out darlie/colgate/fann wong)

the light in my eyes has diminished along with the godzilla-like appetite. but i'm still connected to the power supply so none of you shd fret. as for the appetite, i'm open to treats.

i promise to update. because there's more to come, more to expect. more that i would have learnt and lived.

because Jesus is a good God.

thank you

sat was great except for the fact that i got isaac and i lost and we ended up at international business park. i panicked of course but we still managed to get home before midnight.

met up with my dear friend shuxin and went visiting for cny after that. that part was good.

i feel very comforted and loved. its true that when things are going so awry and wrong, your support system is very vital and important and i thank God so so much that my friends and family have been so supportive and sweet.

today a friend fr church that i wassnt particularly close just said this before parting after lunch that "should i have trouble (despite knowing the strange times of the day that i hv trouble), i could call anytime"

simple line as that but i was most touched. coz its expected to be inconvenient and difficult. prior to that my cg leader oso offered the same thing. and i know its not just talk because they have proven to be there when i need them too. for so long i thought isaac was the only one willing to be inconvenienced by me and i'v ebeen feeling so sorry for bringing him so much trouble but now, sigh it really just moves me to tears to know that i am loved.

sounds silly i know but i really didn't know prior to this episode. how real the love of God is that its shed in (almost) every heart around me. Gods been very gracious through this episode.

i remember once when i was gg thru a difficult time when i was young and mei ling said to me, "call me even if its 3 am or if you're hungry coz chances are, i'll be hungry too". only God knows how much that means to me coz sometimes, when trouble strikes and the enemy isolates you, its terribly scary to not have a tangible hand to hold, an audible voice to guide you.

i miss my friends so much. i just wanto tell all of you i love you all.