Thoughts on a Friday night

Psalms 23

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, (that's providence)

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,

He leadeth me beside the still waters. (that's security)

He restoreth my soul, (that's spiritual fulfillment)

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake (that's guidance)

Yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

For thou art with me (that's protection)

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me (that's assurance and chastening)

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies (that's a promise)

Thou annointest my head with oil

My cup runneth over

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever

-In this 23rd Psalm, David switches from describing our Lord (using the word "He"), in the first 3 verses of the chapter, to talking to our Lord (using the word "thou). This is a timely reminder to all of us - that we cannot tell people about our God and leave out talking to God Himself

-A preacher and a famous actor were asked to recite the 23rd Psalm in front of an audience. The actor went first. He recited the Psalm perfectly, and when he finished, his audience was in awe. The preacher went next, and when he had finished, his audience was in tears - No doubt, the actor knew the Psalm well, however..the preacher knew the shepherd very well.

Job 2:9-10

Then said his wife unto him,

Dost thou still retain thine integrity?

Curse God,

And die

But He answered and said unto her

Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.

What?

Shall we receive good at the hand of God,

And shall we not receive evil,

In all this did not Job sin with his lips

-A day after attending the blood drive at Jurong last Saturday, I fell ill, and here I am, still symptoming away nearly a week later. It isn't easy going for lectures and doing tutorials with a stuffed up nose and general lethargy. But lets remember that God allows evil, pain and suffering in this world because He knows we would tend to forget Him if we were free from all these. Moreover, evil, pain and suffering is a result of personal wrong choices, or wrong choices which others have made. There is a purpose to all toiling and sufferings, and a good one at that. But amidst all these, let's not overlook the blessings which we've so richly been bestowed with. When we focus on the negative, the positive tends to get overlooked.

Before i forget

Under the right circumstances, the sweetest sound to someone's ears would be that of his or her name.

One way you could tell people how much they mean to you would be by remembering what they've said, months, or even years before

One Step at a time

One step at a time,

Slow and steady wins the race,

There may be lots to do,

But if you try standing on 2 steps at once,

You'll be less stable,

It's tougher to keep your balance then.

So one thing at a time aye,

And if you can,

Hold on to the railings too

These fleeting moments

As the last few hours of the holidays fleet past, and as I look back at what I've done these 3 months. I can say that I've had a really fulfilling one. You know, our minds are like shelves. We place various memories on these shelves. And these shelves can store many happy memories for years to come, if properly cherished. Cherishing these memories would be akin to constantly making sure they are somewhere at the front of these shelves. If we don't - they'll probably we pushed all the way to the back by other thoughts and stuff till they become hard to retrieve. Then again, studies have shown that we never completely forget things. That's the beauty of the human mind.

On another note, school starts tomorrow. The beginning of a new semester and a fresh start. Whenever times got tough in my first year, I would pray, trust that God would guide me through the rain. At times, due to a lack of faith, I would still find myself worrying. I would also think of you, your optimism and down-to-earthness, and in a way draw strength from the thought. Thank you for the encouragement, though you probably didn't know you were doing that for me. It was also during these 3 months that I managed to get a glimpse out of my little window, and I'm grateful for that. Indeed ignorance is bliss, but a part of my world would have been a lie if I hadn't got that little glimpse.

Only He can tell the future..

Do we really know?

There is such alot that goes on around us everyday. The world that we are familiar with revolves mainly around what we know. That is to say, in actual fact, there are many things which we do not know. Things which happen in real time which others experience, but not us. Feelings which people have which we do not know of. Hence, more often than not in scenarios involving others, which we are faced with, we do not get the full picture of what is really happening. This would not be possible without knowing certain pieces of background information which others have, which we don't. Bottom line, we each understand this world differently, let's not jump to conclusions and start assuming when we don't have the full picture of what's going on.

The laws of life

We may have our own ideas on how things should work.

Fact is,

Despite these preconceptions,

Events will more often than not tend toward these natural laws.

Hope

Hope's a wonderful thing,

Man lives for a few days without food

For 5 minutes without oxygen

But he would not last a second without hope.

And so you see,

We live on hope everyday.

It may be frail at times,

But one thing's for sure,

It's hard to kill,

Hope is just like a rainbow,

More often than not you only see half, or less than half of it,

It's faint,

But you know it's something that remains after a storm.

James has taught:

"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.

For what is your life?

It is even a vapour,

That appeareth for a little time,

And then vanisheth away.

For that ye ought to say,

If the Lord will,

We shall live,

And do this,

Or that"

As much as we encourage others with these verses,

We know it isn't that easy,

When You made us and put us here in this world,

You knew that we each had our own heart's desires and ambitions,

And at this point, I realise there's so much i'd hate to leave behind.

Dear Lord however,

You have also willed us to be yielded and still,

Like clay in the potter's hands,

Hence when and if the time comes for me to stub hope out,

When in your own way you've told me "No"

Let me be able to do it,

For the greater good of those around me and myself

For whenever in life that I may need to.

Even so Dear Lord,

Grant me the patience and hope to stand firm,

If it be thy will.

It is not of mine own

Taking out my lab coat from the cupboard again,

Getting ready for a new semester,

I remembered what someone once said to me;

And I'm thankful for being believed in

It was only a few words, but it meant alot

When i prayed that if Lord willing,

I'd get into this,

I promised Him i'd do my best to use what I learnt to glorify His name

For the knowledge and skill gained is mine to keep

But the opportunity and ability to acquire it comes from Him