During prayer meeting, we sang this hymn at the end of the meeting. It was a really beautiful hymn, somehow the words just shouted out to me…
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven, to earth come down;
Making us Thy humble dwelling,
All Thy faithful mercies crown;
Jesus, Thou art all compassion;
Pure, unbounded love Thou art,
Visit us with Thine affection,
Enter every longing heart.
Come almighty, to deliver!
Let us all Thy grace receive,
Follow in Thy steps, and never,
Nevermore the pathway leave;
Then our hearts will yield their blessing,
Sweet incense to God above,
Offer praises without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.
First fruits of Thy new creation,
Faithful, holy, may we be,
Joyful in Thy great salvation,
Daily more conformed to Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Then to worship and adore Thee,
Lost in wonder, love and praise.
(Hymn 413 in the Believer's hymn book)
The last sentence in particular is my favorite - ‘lost in wonder, love and grace’. Sometimes we try too hard to make sense of everything and we fail to realize when it comes to the things of God, things often get too big and just beyond human comprehension, that we just get lost in the wonder of it!
listen to God's heart
I was listening to a compilation cd called "listen to our hearts", the cd had various artists sharing their testimony through songs that they have sung . I came across Steve Green's thoughts and I found it so true to my own heart that I just had to share them.
Steve Green shared that since he was brought up in a christian home, he was perceived to be a generally good kid, which had made him complacent to being 'good enough' externally. By the time he was in his mid-twenties, people still consider him to be a very decent young man. However, Steve Green wouldn't think so himself. He confessed that even though he has managed to put up an outward image of what others perceive him to be, it was all because he didn't want to fail his family and friends and hinder the work of God. The problem with that is it doesn't work, it is hard to keep it up, and deep down inside he knew he was far from good. By God grace, God finally reached out to bring him back to repentence. Through the ongoing process of repentence, he was able to see the big picture of how holy God is, and how wretched he was with all his sin. As he continues to learn more about God and see more of God's holiness, he realises that God gets bigger and bigger, and he gets worse and worse. So in order to bridge that ever increasing gap of his condition and God's holiness, he needs a bigger Lord to fill that gap, which causes him to keep running to the Lord. And with his own words he says:" ...instead of focusing my attention on stop doing that, don't sin, don't do this, what I really need is a renewed love for Christ. The effect of that renewed love is the driving away of false affections and wrong desires but it has to be the object of my attention, which is the renewed love for Christ."
Two points that just stood out to me as I was hearing it. The first being that the more we grow closer to the Lord, the more we will realise how sinful we are and how much we really need the Lord. The second is a personal reminder to myself, that its useless to seek change by trying not to do this or that, but rather focusing our love for our Lord, to seek Him first, to have a heart after God's own heart, and all other things will fall into place as it should be. Thanks Steve, I couldn't agree more!
Steve Green shared that since he was brought up in a christian home, he was perceived to be a generally good kid, which had made him complacent to being 'good enough' externally. By the time he was in his mid-twenties, people still consider him to be a very decent young man. However, Steve Green wouldn't think so himself. He confessed that even though he has managed to put up an outward image of what others perceive him to be, it was all because he didn't want to fail his family and friends and hinder the work of God. The problem with that is it doesn't work, it is hard to keep it up, and deep down inside he knew he was far from good. By God grace, God finally reached out to bring him back to repentence. Through the ongoing process of repentence, he was able to see the big picture of how holy God is, and how wretched he was with all his sin. As he continues to learn more about God and see more of God's holiness, he realises that God gets bigger and bigger, and he gets worse and worse. So in order to bridge that ever increasing gap of his condition and God's holiness, he needs a bigger Lord to fill that gap, which causes him to keep running to the Lord. And with his own words he says:" ...instead of focusing my attention on stop doing that, don't sin, don't do this, what I really need is a renewed love for Christ. The effect of that renewed love is the driving away of false affections and wrong desires but it has to be the object of my attention, which is the renewed love for Christ."
Two points that just stood out to me as I was hearing it. The first being that the more we grow closer to the Lord, the more we will realise how sinful we are and how much we really need the Lord. The second is a personal reminder to myself, that its useless to seek change by trying not to do this or that, but rather focusing our love for our Lord, to seek Him first, to have a heart after God's own heart, and all other things will fall into place as it should be. Thanks Steve, I couldn't agree more!
centre of it all
Its a new year, and like all new beginnings, it gets people thinking, reevaluating the past and making new year resolutions (most people do... i guess). For me it is no exception, I have been thinking about alot of things. One of which has led me to think about what exactly do I expect from a whole new year ahead of me. I could have set so many different goals to achieve, all of which I am sure will benefit me if I accomplish them. However,I find myself asking one question to all that i wish to do - Who is at the centre of my own little universe?
I am definitely not the first person to ask that question.. (like duh!) . Well that is an understatement, I know. My point is that we human beings have always had similar questions like these. For example when we see the sun rising from the east and setting in the west, the first of our thoughts were to think that the sun revolves around the earth, only to find out that it is the earth that revolves around the sun. Although it has now been proven true that the earth does revolve around the sun, I would like to point out that they made one small spelling mistake...it should be that the earth (or everything for that matter) revolves around the S-O-N (not S-U-N) .
John wrote in John1:3 - ' Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.' Indeed everything that has been created bears one common fingerprint that points to the Lord Jesus Christ, which brings me back to my question - Who is at the centre of my universe? The obvious answer should be the Lord Jesus Christ. Although I wish it is true of me to make that claim, and even at times I confess that I really do believe that I have the Lord at the centre of my motives, the truth is if I am brutally honest with myself, there is still the "ME" factor that still remains in my pathetic little world. Just like when the scientists concluded that the sun revolves around the earth on the first observation, the human nature is inclined to think that everything has to be because of US, ME, SELF. If not for the correction made to the first observation, I can't imagine what science would turn out to be now based on a wrong observation, science just wouldn't make sense. So it is with oursleves, if the SELF is still the centre of all we think and do, nothing makes sense, everything will just be messed up, because we have ruled out the one thing that everything is based upon. Only when we recognize the rightful place that the Lord Jesus has in our lives, we will not find the answers we need in life.
As much as I wish I could achieve more in this new year, I want to make sure I am doing it all for the right reasons, and for that the Lord has to be the centre of it all!
I am definitely not the first person to ask that question.. (like duh!) . Well that is an understatement, I know. My point is that we human beings have always had similar questions like these. For example when we see the sun rising from the east and setting in the west, the first of our thoughts were to think that the sun revolves around the earth, only to find out that it is the earth that revolves around the sun. Although it has now been proven true that the earth does revolve around the sun, I would like to point out that they made one small spelling mistake...it should be that the earth (or everything for that matter) revolves around the S-O-N (not S-U-N) .
John wrote in John1:3 - ' Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.' Indeed everything that has been created bears one common fingerprint that points to the Lord Jesus Christ, which brings me back to my question - Who is at the centre of my universe? The obvious answer should be the Lord Jesus Christ. Although I wish it is true of me to make that claim, and even at times I confess that I really do believe that I have the Lord at the centre of my motives, the truth is if I am brutally honest with myself, there is still the "ME" factor that still remains in my pathetic little world. Just like when the scientists concluded that the sun revolves around the earth on the first observation, the human nature is inclined to think that everything has to be because of US, ME, SELF. If not for the correction made to the first observation, I can't imagine what science would turn out to be now based on a wrong observation, science just wouldn't make sense. So it is with oursleves, if the SELF is still the centre of all we think and do, nothing makes sense, everything will just be messed up, because we have ruled out the one thing that everything is based upon. Only when we recognize the rightful place that the Lord Jesus has in our lives, we will not find the answers we need in life.
As much as I wish I could achieve more in this new year, I want to make sure I am doing it all for the right reasons, and for that the Lord has to be the centre of it all!
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