Phileo Upon The Rock

What you want to hear from me

2007-07-27T12:39:00.000+08:00

I long to talk to you
Telling you all my plans
Guide you through all your path
Showing you the way of life
But I find it hard to talk to you
To show all I have for you
You don’t seem to understand
Cause you choose what you
Want to hear from me

But I’m waiting for you to come back
To say you want to hear
Everything from me
To be loved and to love
To received blessing
As well as suffering
Willing to give up
Everything for me.

Your ears are open to me
When I say “I love you”
But you would turned away
When I say “love your enemies”
You want the blessing of my bread
Reject the suffering of my cup
You thought my way was easy life
Cause you choose what you
Want to hear from me

Is All About Love

2007-06-05T14:19:00.000+08:00

Is All About Love

In beginning
He’s the only one
Sharing love among the three
Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one
Fellowship in unity

Is all about love
Is all about love
In this union
Is all about love
Is all about love
This is the life in Him

And one day His love
Overflows into all creation
And He place His love
In the hearts of men
His very own

Is all about love
Is all about love
In His people
Is all about love
Is all about love
This is the life He brings.

He reached out for our hand
To ask us for a dance
In His kingdom
And this is His dream
That all men may live
In community

Is all about love
Is all about love
In His kingdom
Is all about love
Is all about love
This is the life He seeks.

Fear Factor

2007-06-05T14:17:00.000+08:00

some people put on safety belt because fear of "saman", some people study for exam because fear of failing, some people eat vegetable because fear of constipation (cannot go toilet), but how many people will live their life according to God's way because of the Fear of God?

Moses say to the people "do not be afraid, God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." Exodus 20:20

The Wounded Healer

2007-04-19T11:03:00.000+08:00

Jesus the Son of God, came to suffer and die for us. He went through all kinds of trial, attack, insult, betrayal, pain and emotional struggle, any form of human suffering that is known to men and came out victorious. that is why He is able to understand and comfort and heal those who are going through the same suffering. He is the wounded healer. Sometimes we ask God why we had to go through certain suffering and pain, now i'm quite certain that one of the reason and purpose is that we too may become a wounded healer. As we have been wounded and healed by Jesus, we can go out to heal those still in pain. "We can't lead others beyond where we are now." If we want to help others overcome certain problem we ourselves must overcome it first....

Love Is Blind

2007-04-16T23:10:00.000+08:00

3 reasons Why love is blind...

1. Love is blind because love is acceptance. love accepts even weakness, failure and rejection ... But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

2. Love is blind because love is sacrifice. love sacrifices even when it is not returned..... This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

3. Love is blind because love transforms. someone has been made blind so that we who are blind can received sight..... God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Co 5:21)

Admin? Activities? MInistry?

2007-04-03T12:06:00.000+08:00

From the duration that i was missing from this blog you would probably know how i come to this thought. well it has been 8 months since i join the church in full time ministry, for the past few months we have been quite tied up with activities after activities. and i fully agree what our dear bro daniel who said that ministry is about ministering to the brokeness of people, i see myself lacking in that sense.

Many a times when the church grows larger, its leaders would tend to be more and more busy. but what are they busy about?
Most of the time i see leaders busy with meetings, paper work, administration and creating a system... especially so in the setting of a prebyterian church where there is an unsaid system where elders are to take care of spiritual matters and the deacons are the administrator doing paper work and arrangement. Yes this is a biblical foundation of church "organisation" recorded in Acts 6:1-4, where the apostles are too busy with the ministry of the Word of God so therefore selected 7 to serve the needs of the widows among the Grecian Jews but busy church leaders have miss the point, the seven was selected not to ease the administration work of the apostles but to serve the needs among the believers whom they cannot handle. at the end of the day it is still ministering to the needs of people whether is spiritual, physical, emotional or intellectual needs.

sometimes it seems so machenical.... where are the humans?

To be Godly...

2007-01-05T01:50:00.000+08:00

To be Godly, to many of us it means to have the nature of God which is holy, righteous, just, loving, kind and etc... but in my 6 months of full time ministry i realised that we have miss out another important part of Godly. Godly is not just having the nature of God but also asking where is the presence of God. Many christian can have good christian conduct on the outside but without the power of Jesus inside. We are capable of living Godly lives without God, having christian programmes without Christ.

"In all that we do asked, where is God in all this?"

Precious gift?

2007-01-04T10:45:00.000+08:00

How would you define a precious gift? is it by the size or the price? who has given more, the rich who gave out of their wealth or the widow who gave out of her poverty all she had to live on? who love you more, the rich guy who use 2 miniutes to buy you a RM5000 present or the guy who spend 24 hours knowing what you like and 48 hours seraching for it and use 90% of his bank account to buy you that gift?

"If it doesn't cost me anything to give you something is worth nothing, it cost Jesus his life to give us eternal life and its worth our everything."

What should I do?

2006-12-05T09:53:00.000+08:00

I cannot solve everyone's problem. I cannot do anything by myself.
My everyday prayer now is :
"Lord help me to do what You want me to do, nothing more and nothing less."
Not by might, not by power, but by Thy Spirit says the Lord.

Holistic???

2006-11-11T09:55:00.000+08:00

Holistic is a word that is getting more and more attention in recent years. People often use this word to draw attention to the different dimension or parts of something. We see terms like holistic medicine, holistic design, holistic spirituality and etc. though popular, Holistic is still a word not easily found in dictionary. The word originated from the Greek word Holos which means Whole. To the Greeks, the sum of all the parts does not equal to the whole. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Holism is the belief that each thing is a whole which is more important than the parts that make it up. Or in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is define as a theory that the universe and especially living nature is correctly seen in terms of interacting wholes (as of living organisms) that are more than the mere sum of elementary particles. therefore having all the different parts or dimension does not guarantee holism we do not grasp the essence of the whole. if the parts are not integrated into or without the essence, it will be like a car fully equipped but with out a driver. what about human life? how can a human life be holistic? what is the essence of life? The essence of life is in our Creator.

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Spritual Blindness

2006-10-10T13:30:00.000+08:00

Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."
Let confess and recognize our weakness to God, be blind to our own self vision and seek renewed eye sight from God and have the vision of Jesus.....

The Unconditional Love

2006-09-13T10:52:00.000+08:00

The story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31) best describe the love of God. Like a father, God's grace and mercy is always there waitting for us with open arms when we realised our wickedness, actknowledge our nothingness and go back to Him.
Sometimes we may feel so guilty for our sin that we dare not approch God fearing that He will reject us. We may feel and behave like Peter when seeing the miraculous act of Jesus, realising His holiness say "away from me Lord for i'm a sinner" (Luke 5:8), or when after betraying Jesus 3 times, try to avoid Jesus and could not understand His love for him. (John 21:115) But even though Jesus knew Peter was going to deny Him, He still pray for him and spoke of Peter's future usefulness (Luke 22:32)
God's love is unconditional! Jesus didn't ask Zacchaeus to repent first before He will have dinner in his house, but instead He offer to go to his house without condition and this love change Zacchaeus.
Let us then imitate king David for when in his darkest time, caught in sin, he prayed (Psa 51:11) "D not cast me from your presence or take your Holy spirit from me"
Therefore when we are weak in flesh, when we are deep in sin, let's not run away from God but yield even more of His presence and His Spirit.

"There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more, and nothing we have done could make Him close the door." Thank you Jesus.....

Repent...

2006-09-05T14:50:00.000+08:00

The Bible command us to repent and so often in our prayer to God we tell Him we repent from our sin. Repent is not about feeling sorry for your mistake, is not about crying over spilled milk, is not about how sorrow and remorse you feel, but is all about a "change of mind". changing our mind from our sinful act and desire to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, changing from the love for sinful self gratification to the love for God and His holiness.
Tears does not justify repentance....

"who am I" Youth Camp Theme Talk

2006-08-22T15:18:00.000+08:00

"Know your Maker, put your life in the master's hand like the clay in the potter's hand, and live the abundant life our creator had prepared for us in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit."

Thoughts on "Click"

2006-08-15T11:34:00.000+08:00

I just watch this new movie yesterday, it stirs my thoughts.
Our character is a refection of our habits, and our habits are formed by our behavior. What we choose today, will mould our character tomorrow. What is our preference when we are in a choice between work and family? Between work and God? Or family and God? If youths today are encourage to choose academic studies before God, I'm sure they will choose their work above God in future.
Adam Sandler had a second chance, I don't think we have.
What kind of life do we want? What kind of life do we want our youths to have? I believe, start choosing now.....

Pray...

2006-08-11T10:13:00.000+08:00

Praying is
coming to God in total surrender, trusting that He will give you the best. (Matt 7:7-11)

Intimacy with God

2006-08-03T10:43:00.000+08:00

In this postmodern culture, people are seeking to feel close to God, to be connected to the source, to be intimate with God and to grab hold of God, the phenomena is true to both Christian and non-Christian. New ager will say don't think just feel, when feeling becomes dominant what we have is waves of Christian running after created atmosphere that make them feel the presence of God, music and songs that "touches" their heart (in tune with their spirit), contemplative practice that could bring them to an altered state, a closer connection with God and spiritual manifestation that make them feel good or touch by God. But my question is after the music fades, after we leave the "holy place", when we are not in "silence" and when we do not see miraculous signs, who we are before God? How are we related to Him? Is He still relevant to us?
Sex is the most intimate act in a strongly, closely and faithfully builded relationship between a husband and his wife within a commitment. People are involved in premarital sex because they are so drawn towards physical closeness. They want to "feel close" rather than taking time to build a strong and close relationship with their lover. Many of this "instant" love failed when it comes to marriage. Why? Their do not have a strong relationship, a foundation of understanding and commitment.
To have intimacy with God thru feeling close to Him without taking effort and time to grow in His Word, Will and relationship with Him, is just like having "one night stand" with God. This is very Dangerous.....
First let us build a strong relationship with Him by understanding His Word and Will, deepen our worship to Him by offering ourselves as living sacrifice in our daily life, walk closely with Him through daily communion of prayer.

You are the Light of the World

2006-07-27T15:24:00.000+08:00

In the "sermon on the mount" Jesus after giving the the beatitudes, tell His disciples this, "you are the light of the world." In my own Christian journey I find myself and other fellow Christian trying so hard to project that light, just because we fail to see the our new being and new life in Christ. Jesus didn't ask us to create the light, but He say "you are the light" many a times I see Christian including myself obeying this statement of Jesus as if He had given us a torch light and we are suppose to shine the light into the dark place whenever and wherever we can as long as our battery power is still strong. But Jesus is referring to people who have been born again and received this new life as new creation in the source of LIGHT as light. We are the light, our whole being and character is the light, wherever we go our light shines. That's why in the following verse the warning that Jesus gave was not about switching off your light and fail to shine but He was warning against covering up your light. Jesus has lid you up, the worst you can do is covering it up. Why people of light would want to cover up their light? Because when there is light darkness will flee, and sad to say Christian sometimes still prefer darkness to be around. Is hard to be someone you are not, is hard to shine when you are not the light, when the source of light is not in you.
Jesus The Light has come, He did not just give you the light, but He made you into a light to the world. So that people may see this transformed light and praise our Father in Heaven.

A Lectio Divina on John 2:6-11

2006-07-12T12:10:00.000+08:00

This passage recorded the first sign of Jesus at a wedding banquet.
The thought that came:
"We must first be clean and empty and be filled by the Holy Spirit then only Jesus can tansform us into the BEST wine. And when people see this transformation they will believe in our God"

New Journey...

2006-07-11T10:06:00.000+08:00

Finally i have stated my new journey in full time ministry with the youth. There are so much to achieve, ideas keep coming, but i pray that it wouldn't remained as a dream. I'm happy and excited, espeacially with my own office.
There is only one Focus in my mind,
"Follow my example, as i follow the example of Christ."

Inside Out

2006-07-06T10:46:00.000+08:00

If the heart is your feeling, the mind is your thinking and the body is your doing then the soul would be our inner being. Our thoughts, emotion and action are very much the reflection and expression of our inner being or self. The person we are inside will determine our thinking, feeling and doing. In the same way, our everyday thoughts, emotion and action will have it’s part in moulding and shaping who we are.

Therefore as christian who are united in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ should have Christ formed within us (Gal 4:19) through the Holy Spirit taking on the Person of Christ as the “person” we are (Gal 3:27). So that our thoughts, emotion and action will be like Christ. And the more we imitate Christ in our thinking, feeling and doing, the more Christ is formed in us. This is a process, untill the Kingdom of God shall come in full.

Let us echo Paul’s desire in which he said :
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)

Why Phileo???

2006-07-05T18:23:00.000+08:00

Two years ago i thought of this name phileo, and thought maybe i will give it to my son in future. recently i saw an electrical brand also use phileo but i don't think they have what i have in mind. Phi stands for philosophy which represent wisdom or the mind. Leo stands for lion which signify physical strength or represent the body. and Phileo in Greek means love, brotherly love, taking the place of the heart. Human must have a holistic growth, and the perfect example for this growth is seen in Jesus when it was said of Him that he "grew in wisdom and in stature, in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52)
Now the question is how can we have or generate this kind of growth in us? When we wash our dishes like a cup for example do you wash the inside first or the outside first? Where do u think we should start?.....