Prayer is Two Way Communication

When we discussed about prayer, it seems most people teaches prayer as you are communicating to God, and in turn as you read the Bible, God communicates with you.  I think this is the very basic form of communication with God when in comes to Christianity.

There is nothing wrong with such teaching, but as we grow older and more mature in our spiritual walk with the LORD, we discover that prayer is actually a two way communication.  As we talk and share to God our worship and concerns, the Holy Spirit who is in us in turn speaks to our heart, if we are able to really quiet ourselves before Him.

Prayer is actually listening rather than speaking.  It is very important for us Christians to learn how to discern and listen to the Holy Spirit who speaks directly to us.  There is always a thin line when we talk about this matter.  The question that pops to our mind, how will I know if what I am thinking of is what God wants rather than my own personal want?  The right question should be, are we really filling our minds with the Word of God or not?  In order to be able to discern the will of God, first and foremost is to have a right relationship with Him.

It is really quieting before the Lord.  This is another wrong concept of quiet time.  Most of the time quiet time is doing prayer and reading the Bible.  Though this is right in one sense, but the most important which we often neglect was actually, practically "quiet or being still or ssshhh" before the LORD in order to listen.  Sadly most of the time we are so much in a hurry in our quiet time that we missed out God speaking to us.

Prayer is actually being able to say what God wants rather than just praying about things we want.

It's All About Prayer

Yesterday I had a meeting with the Prayer and Praise Leaders of the Cell Group Ministry.  As we discussed so many things in prayer, I was encouraged myself and was able to learn a lot from our discussion.

One of our emphasis was the importance of prayer in the Cell Group Ministry.  In has been noticeable that Bible Study has always been the main focus of all cell groups.  We spend so much time in Bible Study every time we meet.  There is nothing wrong with Bible Study because this is of importance but a more important area was actually prayer which we all often neglect. Prayer is the real connection of man with God.

I remembered the story of Moses and Joshua, while Joshua was busy fighting the Amalekites actually Moses together with two other companions were busy praying up the mountain.  Whenever Moses hands dropped, the Israelites was loosing the battle, and while it was up the Israelites were winning the battle.

The same is true with our life and especially our ministry.  The Cell Group Ministry was created to be a prayer ministry in order to build up the church.  It was of utmost important that all groups should give emphasis in praying for the church; for UECP.  Prayer and Praise time should never be neglected by the group because its really all about prayer that we become victorious in our ministry.

 Without prayer we will never experience the needed spirituality that brings us closer to God.

Formating My Desktop vs Activating My New Toy

I started formatting my computer in the office yesterday and still not done in formatting and reinstalling softwares.  As compared to activating my new Macbook - it was just pushing a few buttons and I am done.


Still have not decided to fully shift to Mac but it seems more practical and you need not keep tons of CD for your software requirements.  Still experimenting and still needed to buy some accessories though.  But until now, my desktop has not finished classifying my cliparts and some softwares are no longer compatible after reinstalling.  I am really having a difficult time how to make my windows fully operational.  It seems my desktop is jealous with my new Mac and its giving me a hard time.


Praise God for this new Mac, I pray that I would be able to maximize its usage of this computer for His glory.

Challenge of Keeping Your Old Folks Healthy

It has been a very busy week overseeing both of my parents who has illness.  Just came from the doctor with my Dad.  He has been diagnose with two almost clogged veins in his heart.  Angiopalsty is the answer.  Hope its only angioplasty, but according to the doctor if the main artery is affected, then by pass is needed.  Further check-up is needed, maybe by the end of the month.  It was advise that we do it asap, since my dad's liver and kidneys are doing well.  Surprisingly, my dad who has been a drunkard most of his life has a good and healthy liver.  He has stopped drinking for more than 10 years now.  Of course, my dad, worries where to get the money and insisted not taking any more check-ups.


My mom on the other hand has been experiencing stomach pains for the past three weeks.  Only yesterday that finally went for a check-up and it was inflamed intestine.  I need to bring her again for further check-up to be sure after her medication.  I was insisting that she undergo endoscopy and colonoscopy.  But of course, she is also hesitant.


Both parents are indignant not to go for further testing.  It is frustrating to convince both old folks to listen to you for goodness sake.  After going through my personal issue with health last year, it has been difficult for me to see people who are sick, since it is bringing me back to depression stage.  And yet they cannot understand, I do not want to add my problems to theirs so better just blog it, just to release tension on my part.


Now I am busy trying to schedule their further check-ups.  I just pray and hope for my God's mercy that all is fine with both of them.  Now, people wonder why am I still single?

Preached with Power

I praise God for answering all my prayers for the past few days.  He guided me in my decisions, formed the Truth within me, and using me as His mouthpiece when I delivered my message in English and Chinese this morning at St. Stephen's Parish.  It was my first time to preach in this church.  People were able to affirmed they learned a lot especially from those heavy theological stuff and was clearly understood especially those from the Chinese congregation.  All for the glory of God.


It was my first time to attend such kind of worship - very very traditional.  It was a blessing to worship in such a way that is guided and very much focused on the Lord.  As I was worshipping, I have a thought for our 80th Annivesary in UECP.  The four weeks could be a visit on the different worships of the different generations in our church.  Worship in the time when our forefathers in China, the past traditional worship, the present type of worship and something futuristic kind of worship.  This might be a good sequence as we visit our past and chart once again our future.

The Power of Prayer

As I was cramming how to present my message for Sunday, the passage in Romans was really killing me.  I was a little bit exhausted so I started to kneel down and prayed to God to grant me .001% of His preaching capability in order to preach well for His people as well as borrow the gift of tongue so that I can speak Chinese well.


I have been praying before as a prepare my message and it has been my usual practice that a week before I preach in a certain church that I would spend time praying for the congregation that they may rest well the night before and that God would fill them with a heart of worship on Sunday.


It seems I really need a lot of prayers, so I started texting people around maybe more than 50 to 60 prayer partners to pray for me.  Afterwards, God gave me a good rest the whole night.


Today, as I review the English version of my message, I don't know what happened but I started rewriting it at it really turned out better as each of the doctrine on the Trinity, Justification and Sanctification starts to reach better explanation.


Before the day ends, Elder Leonida passed by the office and insisted that I preached to her the Chinese version before I go.  I praise God for sending wisdom and people to assist me in my sermon preparation.  My Chinese version after delivering it to Elder Leonida has been fine tuned, making it more understandable as well as correcting some errors in my pronunciation.


Praise God!  Prayer really Works!

Not Transferable

After writing my English version of my message, I thought the Chinese would be easy since I have done this before.  So, I asked Pastor Catherine to be my typist for the Chinese character in the computer so that it will be fast.

But to my surprised, after going through it for two pages, I was so exhausted that I forgot the message was full of doctrinal terminologies that are so difficult to translate and worse difficult to say.  I wonder if people will understand me when I would say those words in Chinese?  I am devastated and really wonder how to go about it.

I asked Pastor Cathy, if she just translate on her own which I beleive would be faster since she is more senior in terms of of these stuff.  I would just adjust her translated version to my own preference later on.

Haaay sobrang frustrating... non transferable yun words…