Long Awaited Pictures

Lots Of Love,

Evann.

More than Ordinary Magic

Leafing through, Poemcrazy by Susan G. Wooldridge, my eyes caught a sentence that really made me so excited that I had to blog it ASAP.

Seeing magic shows in TV and in films, we always hear Abracadabra before the magician performs a wondrous feat, what seems to be a random jumble of letters to sound exotic has significance.

Abracadabra comes from one of the languages of the Bible, Aramaic (I think Jesus spoke Aramaic). In Aramaic it is spelled as:

abraq ad habra

which literally means in English:

I will create as I speak

WOW! When I saw that I couldn't help but think of the verse on how the world was framed by the Word of God, and when God spoke things came in to being, and how through our confession we receive our salvation.

Now, Abracadabra isn't just a word that conjures up images of a bunny coming out of a hat or a magic wand, it's a powerful phrase to remind me of the truth that the words that I speak are important in building up my life.

I love learning about word etymologies, and I couldn't help but notice that the word "abraq" is similar sounding to the Spanish "obra" which in fine arts is workmanship (as obra maestra means a masterpiece ) and "habra" is similar to the Spanish word "habla" for speech/talk. Abracadabra now makes sense even in Spanish! It's with our words that we create the world that we live in.

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. - Proverbs 18:21

Be blessed!

Hey people!


Just wanna share what I've received with you.


Enjoy! :)

Love,
DebChan. :)

Prayer Requests

Here are the prayer requests for the week:

Ming Yang - Pray for strength to get well and for studies

Nicole - Financial blessing and strength to study

Jael - Final year exams

Chris - To score well

Bernice: Strength to sustain thru this week. That she'll not be physically tired. Greater sensitivity and hearing from God and having daily encounters. Cellgroup to be united and that our individual prayer life will be strong.

That's all so far :)

Do keep these people in your prayers!

Sharing Two Visions

For Bible Study this week Jin Lian told us that Debbie and I will share a vision from God. The vision should relate to the first lesson of the Bible Study book - Foundation Truths 1. So Monday last week as we went for the Morning Prayer at Paya Lebar I asked God to show me something. When I received it, I was like, "Really? Are you sure this is it?" . It seemed a bit off and plain weird to me, so I asked another vision.

The great thing about God is that He didn't say, "Why can't you just work with the first one I gave you?", He did give me another one.

Today, I shared with Jin Lian the second vision first, because I thought it was better than the first one. I wasn't even planning to share the first one because I was embarrassed, but then I just said it anyway. And Jin Lian said that the first vision (which I thought was a bit scratch-your-head type) gave her goosebumps! Just goes to show how limited and simple my mind is and how God had been right all along the first time.

Anyway, this is what I received:

The First Vision: Indoor Climbing

Have you ever gone indoor climbing before? If you're a beginner there's someone called the belayer who'll help you through the climb. In my vision, there were three things that struck me about climbing and how it is paralleled to our Christian life.

The Grips : Which look like rocks on the surface of the climbing wall. It symbolizes God's Word (both rhema and logos), without His Word we're unable to navigate through our Christian "climb". We cannot go from where we are to where we should be if we don't hold on to the Word that God gave us.

God's Word is our foothold and handhold, to steady us and to support us.

Some grips are colored and mark out a route, different colors for different levels of difficulty, in the same way we must know the path that God has marked out for us and not stray from it.

The Belayer: What was powerful to me was the concept of the Belayer. That the Holy Spirit was the one holding the rope for us. According to Wikipedia:

By using a correct belaying method, the belayer can hold the entire weight of the climber by using relatively little force, and can easily arrest even a long fall. By using a mixture of belaying angle and hand-grip on the rope, a climber can be lowered gently by the belayer to a safe point where climbing can be resumed.

What a nice picture of the Holy Spirit! I remember that one time I went wall climbing, I am scared of heights, and having seen another girl reach the top and then begin to cry hysterically because she couldn't go down terrified me. But I also remembered that during my ascent, one of my closest friends belayed for me. I felt confident and secure that my friend won't let me be harmed during the whole climb. That's what God was telling me, the Holy Spirit is there to support me, and He can keep me from falling.

Another thing that's important with belaying is that the belayer and the climber must communicate. There must be an ongoing communication between me and the Holy Spirit.

The Climber: I also realized that the attitude of the climber is very important. Because even if the grips are there and the belayer is very skillful and communicative, if I release my hands and feet from the grips and call out "I give up", no matter what the belayer says to keep me going, there's no way that I'll finish the climb. I will just hang wherever I am or let go. Plus climbing is hard work and mental conditioning, it involves discipline and a love for what you do...kinda sums up being a Christian, right?

The Second Vision: God the CityBuilder

In my vision I saw first a beautiful city with a wide array of buildings, some tall others wide, some nicely decorated, others minimalistic, and then I saw a big piece of paper being unrolled right in front of me. It contained a lot of geometric shapes and measurements, then I understood that it was a master plan, a draft of what the city needed to look like.

I asked for wisdom about what I saw, and God told me that He's the Citybuilder, and people are buildings, before the city was built, God had already planned for everything, the layout, the position, the purpose of each building. He had planned that every building (that's us) to have a sure foundation (Jesus, the cornerstone) so that the city will be not just be stable but be eternal.

How beautiful or how tall the building will be depends on the materials that were used to construct it. Our life experiences, lessons we've learned, attitudes, spiritual disciplines we practice etc...are the building blocks of our buildings - our lives. We decide the quality of our life by what we do or how we react to what is given to us.

Anyway, by sharing this, I hope you guys have been blessed as I have learned a lot. Not only about the visions but also on obeying God.

Have a great week ahead!

Something To Think About

There are no crown bearers in heaven who were not cross bearers here below - Charles Spurgeon

Today

This is a new song we will be singing in church this week...look for me if you want the MP3 its by CCC and titled TODAY

TODAY I’M LEAVING ALL MY TROUBLES BEHIND
I’M LETTING GO I’LL FOLLOW THE LINE
I’M HOLDING ON WITH ALL OF MY LIFE
I SEE A RISING SUN
WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

TODAY I’M WALKING TO THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART
TAKE ME ALL THE WAY TO THE START
STRETCH YOUR HANDS STRAIGHTEN THE PATH
I’M FOUND IN OPEN SKIES
YOUR HEART IT LIVES IN MINE

TODAY….TODAY….TODAY….

TODAY I’M FINDING MY FIRST LOVE AGAIN
I’M LEARING HOW TO LET YOU IN
I’M TRUSTING YOU WITH ALL THAT I AM
THE SHADOWS FADE AWAY
IT’S YOU THAT CLEARS THE DAY

NO MORE RUNNING WILD
I’M YOURS FOR LIFE
WELL YOU GOT ME HERE
YOU GOT ME
I HEAR YOUR CALL TONIGHT
YOUR HEART IS MINE
WELL YOU GOT ME HERE
YOU GOT ME

WHOA… …

YOU DREW ME OUT OF THE DEEPEST SEA (WHOA)
YOU GAVE MY SOUL A SONG TO SING (WHOA)
YOU TOOK ME UP ON THE MOUNTAINS HIGH (WHOA)
I SEE MY LIFE IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT WHOA….YEAH!

More Than A Love Song

This song is by a Christian rock band called by Fireflight. Despite the genre, this song has really touched me because of the lyrics. Check it out here:

Look into her eyes
You can see she's crying out
She hidesbehind her smile
You can see the pain of doubt
And if you would hold her close
You could feel the brokenness inside
You would know she feels alone
She feels empty

She needs more than a hug on a holiday
She needs more than a smile on a Sunday
She's not looking for you to fix what's wrong
She really wants to know
Really wants to know she belongs
She needs more than a love song

Listen to her now
Broken is a beautiful sound
She's a little scared
She's afraid of falling further down
But maybe if you let her know
And gave her just a little hope
Somehow if she knew the truth
She'd come alive

She needs more than a hug on a holiday
She needs more than a smile on a Sunday
She's not looking for you to fix what's wrong
She really wants to know
Really wants to know she belongs
She needs more than a love song

In the end
We will learn
Actions speak louder then our words

Something To Share

Hey Guys!

As you all well know, we're having our two weeks morning prayer and today's the second day. I strongly encourage everyone to make themselves available for this hour of prayer, and I also want to share what happened to my Mom and I after the morning prayer at Heart of God Church.

Once we reached Pasir Ris, we went to 7-Eleven because my Mom wanted to buy plum juice , she then asked me if Fairprice was already open, I shrugged and said maybe. So we decided to check it out since it was cheaper to buy stuff there.

Fairprice was indeed open and instead of just buying plum juice we bought more stuff like food etc... My mom wasn't sure that she has enough money to pay for the grocery items so she went and drew money AGAIN (because she had already drawn money from the ATM near the MRT station).

She then went to the ATM at Fairprice and the person in front of her in the queue was someone from her cellgroup. My mom noticed that she didn't draw any money and asked if the machine was working, the woman said yes, it was just that she only checked her account balance. It seemed that the woman was in a hurry so they made quick goodbyes.

Once we had paid for the grocery items, my mom asked for a few large plastic bags from the cashier as is her custom. There were only two of us and we couldn't carry a lot of bags, so she uses big plastic bags to put all the other bags in, less bags to carry but same weight.

We parked the cart over to one side and began putting the stuff we bought to bigger plastic bags. And then this is what happened.

A woman comes up to my Mom, my Mom doesn't know cos she had her back to the woman, but I was seeing everything.

The woman taps my Mom on the shoulder.

Woman: Paulin, is it?
My Mom: Yes.
Me (looking incredibly blank because I haven't seen this woman before, I was trying to assess if she was a "safe" person or if she was about to assault my Mom/sell something to my Mom- seriously...this is what I thought)
Woman: The Lord told me to bless you, and you have to take it.
My Mom : Oh no...
Me (thought bubble - WHAT?!)
Woman: No, the Lord told me to bless you, and I told God if I bumped in to you, I would give it to you. I know you might be walking around here. God bless you. (presses some bill in to my Mom's palm)
Me (Eyeing what denomination was she giving, thought bubble -It looks like a $50!)
My Mom: God bless you more.

The things that are so amazing about this incident are:

1. We were not supposed to go to Fairprice.
2. My Mom had not drawn enough money outside the supermarket. And she had to withdraw money at the ATM where her cellgroup member was also checking her account. - TALK ABOUT DIVINE TIMING!
3. The woman didn't even withdraw money, she only checked her account balance! I'm thinking she had to go to the ATM AGAIN to withdraw money.
4. She didn't just hope to "bump" into my Mom again, and then tell God, "Well God, too bad I can't see them now, maybe they've gone home. I can't give this to her". She was walking around looking for my Mom.
5. She's not even sure of my Mom's name, and when I asked my Mom she told me they were not really that close in the cellgroup. That close meaning, she doesn't know our needs and stuff.
6. She gave my Mom $200!!! It wasn't just a $50 note, it was thicker. AND THE MOST AMAZING THING OF ALL:
7. Numbers 1-6 wouldn't have happened if we didn't go for the morning prayer! Today Pastor Aries told us that we must pray for greater blessings this two weeks of morning prayer, within an hour (!) we experienced an unexpected blessing from an almost total stranger!

This Morning Prayer has been very challenging for me because of the fact that I need to wake up early, which is not easy for me. But the benefits and rewards of sacrificing your my time and much needed rest to just come and pray outweigh the "inconvenience".

East people, I hope to see you guys at Heart Of God these next few days! Let's pray up for our spiritual renewal and revival!

FONDUE PARTY @ W351

WOW!

The fondue was awesome! Thanks to Chris, Debbie, and Xiao En for taking shifts to make sure that the chocolate doesn't burn.

A big THANK-YOU to CK for cooking the penne and pasta sauce, and for Xiao En's unique chicken seaweed that everyone managed to eat!

See how Debbie enjoyed the pasta?

Guess who "crashed" after cellgroup?

We thought he came for make-up refreshments !

I was only there for the first game, here are some pics:

And the winner is: