keep believing

My exam on 21 will be the first paper I sit for in more than 5 months. The last paper that I sat for was early June in ETH, a written exam for my Human Resource module. There was no a single test or quiz for me this semester, it was just FYP and assignment and lab reports and project.

Only two papers on my seventh semester, I hope I haven’t forgotten how to study for an exam.

And FYP is still ongoing i.e. no result yet!

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‘God did not say to Moses, “Stop putting yourself down. You are somebody. You are eloquent.”

That is not the biblical way.

What God said was, “Stop looking at your own unworthiness and uselessness and look at me. I made the mouth. I will be with you. I will help you. I will teach you what to say. Look to me and live!”.

The biblical answer to the paralysis of low self-esteem is not high self-esteem; it is sovereign grace. ‘ (John Piper)

- stolen from a friend’s blog

I thought the movie wasn’t really good. Probably they got too excited with the whole idea of apocalypse and the effects that they could create out of it: earthquakes, flood, volcanoes, collapse of buildings. Or probably it was me who set the expectation myself. I thought the storyline was weak and many scenes were too dramatized and exaggerated that it was kinda annoying to watch to the end. And it’s really long.

An appealing idea behind it, good trailer and hype, John Cusack, Yellowstone (and places all over the world) should have made a very good movie. The movie had a potential to be great, but I thought it just failed, wasted. Oh well, with all the hoo-ha, everyone will still go and watch it anyway.

So, end of days..

If you know that the end is near, I guess what is important to you and what you hold most dearly in your heart will be obvious. The purpose of your life in the first place, the source of hope you hang onto, the essence of your life will show, and what you believe will be the very reason you still keep going..

Learn how to live, and you’ll know how to die;
learn how to die, and you’ll learn how to live. – Morrie Schwartz

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Sidetrack: I miss Yellowstone, like a lot a lot!

I wish I bought my camera earlier to capture more of the beauty of God’s creation.

Paul personifies love as a person who acts in the ways Christians should imitate. The total picture suggests a description of Christ Himself.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have aprophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and dif I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it his not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends…

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Cor 13

Total lack of self-concern, it seeks the neighbor’s good, and its true measure is how much it gives to that end.

Love is a principle of action rather than emotion. It is a matter of doing things for people out of compassion for them, whether or not we feel personal affection for them.

Love is not resentful. Those who love do not devise evil against others. Those who love do not focus their attention on the wrongs that others do to them.

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Out of love for those who did not love, the Father gave the Son, the Son gave His life, and the Father and Son together have sent the Spirit, to save sinners from misery and lead them into glory. Believing in and being overwhelmed by this amazing reality of divine love sustains the love of God and neighbor that the two great commandments require. Our love expresses our gratitude for God’s gracious love to us, and imitates it as a model.

The indispensable mark of Christian life is Christian love. The measure and test of love to God is whole-hearted obedience; the measure and test of love to our neighbors is laying down our lives for them. This sacrifical love involves giving, spending, and impoverishing ourselves for their well-being.

(Notes from The Reformation Study Bible)

1. When preparing materials to teach, keep in mind the capacity and needs of the people that you’re going to teach. You’re not there to show off knowledge or to prove (to yourself) how good you are, but to assist them to learn and grow.

2. Do not share your life excessively (i.e. random thoughts) to anyone who’s available to hear and easily entertained by you. They don’t need to know that much and there’s already too much crap in this world.

3. Be more sensitive towards others. Be more careful with what you say or do, be more mindful about how it may affect others. Not everyone is like you. Stop thinking that if you don’t mind, everyone shouldn’t too.

The punishment for failure to make proper use of opportunities for service is severe.

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness’, he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, ‘Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.’ – R. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

Are you feeling overwhelmed?

It was interesting how during our trip to Eastern Europe, a Swiss friend who joined us had a ‘culture shock’ with the Singapore culture of hurrying, of the muchness and manyness. She ’suffered’ as we hopped from one city to another, rushed from places to places, left bed early and returned late, to the point of falling sick near the end of the trip. She even had to spend one whole day away from us and our exhausting routine, to rest and not be busy.

At Vienna. This was one of the happier days..

At our last stop, as we rushed out from our youth hostel to explore Salzburg, she actually chuckled at the sight of angmohs sitting on the grass, just talking and enjoying the sun, “Europeans..”

1. It feels like, as I get older, birthdays become more and more overrated.

2. It’s like come on it’s the 24th time now, what is so special really..

3. I’m losing another year, why celebrate?

4. But I thank God for 24 years of blessings and guidance and love.

5. Thankful for the sweetest roommate ;)

6. I got to celebrate with my two cell groups on the eve of my birthday this year. Combined :)

7. A birthday lunch, a Care bear and a Swiss fondue set!

8. Birthdays  got old friends and the slightest acquaintances talking again.

9. And they bring back the sweet memories, too!

10. I love birthday wishes. Even a simple and seemingly impersonal “happy birthday” can say that you are not forgotten.

11. This birthday with the 4 after the 2, comes with more responsibilities, more expectations.

12. And I realise many wishes repeat every year and have yet to come true. Keep wishing.

13. Flashback. Good ones and bad ones. Emoness.

14. I’ve got to do a birthday reflection!

15. 24 years on earth, what have you done so far? Britney was 17 when she first sang Baby one more time lol.

16. I would have graduated from university on my next birthday. It’s my last birthday in school!

17. I’m not getting any younger, what to do next?

18. Daily Blessing. Thursday November 5, 2009.
Today’s Verse: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. – Isaiah 26:3 (KJV)

19. Stupid handphone spoilt, again.

20. Everyone is saying “You are soo old!”

21. I had a stupid presentation on my birthday. I don’t think I made myself understood during my presentation, but the prof was being really nice and cute.

22. And I’m kinda haunted with.. FYPFYPFYP.

23. Birthday cake for breakfast, the all time favorite Guanaja from Rive Gauche.

24. Thank you people – those who were anticipating me turning 24 and celebrating the fact that I’m very old, those who cared and remembered, those who made it such a special day for me, those who left birthday wishes and messages.

Happy 24th birthday me! Lol.

We watched the movie Luther last night in our combined cell group session. I expected the movie to be boring, but though there are parts that I didn’t catch and understand, I actually enjoyed the movie.

Not only did we see how God had used him in the history of the Christian faith and the church, we can also learn many things from the life of this spiritual giant.

Luther truly understood and genuinely struggled with what he read, heard and experienced in his spiritual walk, and more importantly, he responded to it. It sure wasn’t easy to break away from the tradition, to stand up against everyone else and the higher authorities, to influence others, for something you believe to be the Truth, accidentally causing so many deaths in the process. I can’t imagine the extent of his spirit and courage against all the doubts and guilt.

And the Bibles that we have in hand, they did not come easy.

It was also said that the reformation movement was one with a sole purpose to return to the Bible.

Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda

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So now, how can we be used by God in His story?

Ervinda S > Kezia Elda S
HAPPY BDAY CA!!!! CIEEE UDAH 17 TAHUN.. UHUII CIHUIII DAHHH DAPET KTP… SUKSES TERUS YA.. SELALU SENANG DAN SEMANGAT..
SEMOGA :
KARYA TULIS LANCAR. LULUS DENGAN NILAI BAIK. KULIAH DI JURUSAN SESUAI DENGAN KEINGINAN. DAPET JODOH TERBAIK. GAK SERING MARAH-MARAH. RAJIN RAPIHIN KAMAR. + JAGO FLUTE. JADI GURU PIANO, TERUS SERING-SERING TRAKTIR CICI NYA DEH…
WISH U ALL THE BEST DAHHHH
GBU
4 hours ago · Comment · Like / Unlike · See Wall-to-Wall

Good friends are like stars.
You don’t always see them,
but you know they are always there.

What an excuse not to make time for old friends and put in effort to keep old friendships.

We’re soo cutee lol.