Posted by: thaishin | February 2, 2013

Stay until called

1 Corinthian 7:17

17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. … -niv 1984

17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. … -kjv

17 But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. … -nkj

Meditations:

All my life I stayed in Singapore until I came to will county in illinois. I believe it’s God’s sovereign will for me to relocate to my present location. It is the place where it has my physical presence. It is the place where I do my grocery, where I see the doctor, where my son goes to school, where I interact with my neighbours, where I sent my car for servicing/repairs, where I go to church. It is the place where God wants me to be. My family has stayed here for nearly 5 years. I am tempted to move to another place where it is warmer at a later point in life, maybe after my son finish college.  But after reading 1 Cor 7:17, I am not so sure,  maybe  I should wait for the Lord’s allotment.

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Posted by: thaishin | January 21, 2013

Prayer together

It has been a long time coming. But today our family prayed together for the first time.
Prayer, a discipline I relegated to before bedtime and asking for journey mercies. Now, it is high time that our family starts praying together.
I am interested in teaching my son to know how to pray.
Simply talking to God is something that my son has to learn. He learned how to pray during bedtime. But it is routine prayer. He needs to know how to express his thoughts and offer it up to God. He prayed a simple prayer tonight and that’s good. He needs to pray more and we will have more prayer time together as a family.
Taking captive every thought in our mind begins with uttering our prayers up to God and listening to our own physical voice.

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Posted by: thaishin | January 3, 2013

Done in moderation

You have heard it before, do everything in moderation, do not go to extremes. Finally, I found the verse that speaks of that in

Titus 2:2

2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. – kjv

2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. -niv

2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; -nkjv

The word temperate means moderate or self-restrained, not excessive in degree as things, qualities etc. It’s biblical to do things in moderation.

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Posted by: thaishin | December 26, 2012

No room

Our bias, our judgment, our desires and our feelings are embedded in the words we use when we say A to mean B. There is no room for objectivity.

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Posted by: thaishin | December 25, 2012

Prophecy of a ruler from Bethlehem

A prophecy of birth of Jesus from Micah 5:2

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans[b] of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”

-niv

2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. -kjv

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”

-nkjv

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Posted by: thaishin | December 13, 2012

Stress relief

I tried it before, it works. Confessing your sin(s) to God relieves your stress.
There was once after church service that I got burning mad at somebody in church. My pride was being hurt and I confessed the sin in my pride to God and it worked magically. I felt much better almost immediately after confessing my sin.
By confessing my sin(s) to God, I am saying God you are the judge, whatever vengeance that I want is now in your hands. It may be that I am not the offending party, it does not matter. Even when it’s not your fault, still confess your sin(s) because sin is definitely there when pride gets in the way

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Posted by: thaishin | November 25, 2012

Focused Emotions

Mark 12:30

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. -kjv

Meditations:

Of this command, one portion of it tells us to love God with all our heart. It means we have to love God with all our emotions. For me, the means through which I can do that is to reflect on how Jesus endured the pain of the nails driven through his hands and feet. He did that for me. Jesus suffered the pain as a man does. That puts a tear in my eye. As I do that, I question the motive behind my tear. Was it for self-pity? I have to channel my emotion solely on Jesus by focusing on His love for me. We loved because He first loved us. For me, that’s the discovery of emotion for I have lived a rather emotionless living for quite some part of my life even up to now.
With that discovery of emotion comes tears when I would shed a tear for the love of someone close to me or when I encounter a type of Christ in somebody else lives. Selfish tears still exist though because that is our humanity but I have come to feel more genuinely.

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Posted by: thaishin | October 30, 2012

God’s secret with you

If God has a secret to share with you, He will somehow make it known to you. On your part, keep it only to yourself and don’t blabber it to others like Esau who cheapens his birthright. But look backward to your secret as you journey on in life to reinforce and strengthen your faith because this will please God.
The good news of Jesus is an open secret for all believers and ought to be shared with everybody unlike the secret that God shared only with you. Jesus is still a secret that needs to be revealed to those who has yet to believe because they wonder what’s the good news about and we need to bring the good news to them because they can’t help themselves.

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Posted by: thaishin | October 1, 2012

Contempt or Living Water?

Familiarity breeds contempt

John 7
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. -kjv

Meditations:

When one becomes familiar with another in a relationship, does it lead to contempt for your partner or does it lead to mutual edification? The former speaks of the fallen nature of man when sin comes into play. Because of sin, selfishness sets in and one would become bored of one’s partner easily and looks else where for fulfillment or the relationship becomes strained because of differences. However, if Jesus is present in the lives of the couple, the husband/wife can encourage each other. The spouse is not easily bored of his/her partner. The spouse will stand by his/her partner until death parts them. Gentleness and transparency will be the norm in the relationship. There will be complete trust for each other and each will seek the good for the other. Each will want to follow God’s will for them.
Even if Jesus is present in only one of the spouse, that person becomes a source of encouragement for his/her partner. It is going to be tiring for the christian spouse but pray that through his/her testimony the non believing spouse will come to believe in Christ one day.

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Posted by: thaishin | August 20, 2012

Giving thanks as a first step

I was listening to christian radio when the preacher was preaching that giving thanks is a form of worship. Then it struck me that giving thanks can serve as an evangelistic tool as well, which in my case I use for my son.
My son prays before he sleeps. It came to me that I can encourage him to give thanks, which he is doing now, but I think he has to be more specific.
By giving thanks specifically, it does the following:
1) It instills in him a grateful heart.
2) It helps him to recognize his blessings the past day. It helps if he is specific.
3) It helps him to ponder what he had done the past day. It helps him to look inward and be more reflective. They say a child has short memory. Maybe this reason is more applicable if the child is older.
4) It helps him to not take things for granted.
A child thinks concretely. If he is not able to give thanks for what he has in this life, how can he give thanks to Jesus for saving him and that he has to do it by faith? So, giving thanks for what he has now is a first step toward giving thanks to Jesus for what the child does not see physically.

1 Thessalonians 5
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. -kjv

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. -niv

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