Boast only in the Cross of Christ

I thank God for the numerous blessings which He has poured upon me. Even at my saddest moments of my life, I will want to fall back on His Word which offers a hope for me. I was mediating upon Psalm 84 and the last two verses are His assuring words to me.

Let’s do a review on Psalm 84.

Psalm 84
For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

2 My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young —

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

Selah

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

7 They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

8 Hear my prayer,

O LORD God Almighty; listen to me,

O God of Jacob. Selah

9 Look upon our shield,

O God; look with favor on your anointed one.

10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

12 O LORD Almighty,

blessed is the man who trusts in you.

“May I never boast except in the Cross of our LORD Jesus Christ through which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” ~ Galatians 6:14

Breakfast, Dinner, Supper?

Normally, we will address our meals are breakfast, lunch and dinner but this church mate of mine; he mentioned that in his hometown, they address it as breakfast, dinner and supper. Hence when Pst is inviting us over to his place for lunch today, it is actually dinner to him. Confusing, right? Haha.

Today, Utah celebrates Easter Day. It is the glorious day which whom our LORD and Savior, Christ Jesus resurrected from the dead. It is also the day which the empty tomb proves that our Savior lives forevermore. AMEN!

My church had a simple Easter Day Breakfast fellowship, followed by a choir performance and an Easter message. Pst was preaching from Luke 24. It is amazing that the Gospel is ever alive today as it still speaks intensely to me. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. (Gal 6:14)

To end off the day, I had a wonderful lunch at Pst’s place and played with his dog for a while. I am thankful for my gracious God for Easter Day and also to Him who has provided both lunch and dinner for me. (Dinner was at my neighbor’s place, hahaha)

Let's thank God for Easter!

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” Isaiah 53:3

“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11

“But to all who believed and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

“He has made us accepted in the beloved.” Eph. 1:6

“While suffering He uttered no threats.” 1 Peter 2:23

“Jesus Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

“Like a lamb that is led to slaughter.” Isaiah 53:7

“If He would render Himself as a guilt offering.” Isaiah 53:10

“Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22

“In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Eph. 1:7

“By oppression and judgment He was taken away.” Isaiah 53:8

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:1-2

“Cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.” Isaiah 53:8

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Matthew 46:46

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has already passed out of death into life.” John 5:24

God’s Grace taught me HUMILITY

I just realized today from the bible study in church that praying for God to teach me humility is a pretty scary thing. The reason is He will definitely humble you and you never know what kind of situations you are going to get into to learn humility…

This week in Utah, I started working on my morning shift since last Wednesday. My humility lesson started then. The very first day of my shift was the most tiring day for me because after shift, I got to attend our department area meeting and furthermore got to go for a department dinner gathering to welcome incoming new colleagues. The worst part is I actually lost my way (yup, again!) to the dining place and took like 1.5 hours just to get there. Thank God that He still led me there safely in the midst of all the calling while driving and holding on to the steering wheel with one hand to go through a roundabout. I was definitely protected by God that I was not booked by the traffic police!

Thursday is the second day of my shift and once again, this was God’s second humility lesson for me. My colleague who drove me to work has misplaced her car keys in another colleague’s car but this colleague has left the office. Hence without a decent transportation, we got no choice but to wait for this colleague to come back office to pass back our car keys. All in all, we spent at least 2 hours waiting in the office. I had to be humble and exercise my patience in the midst of all the waiting. And this was also the moment when I realized that God is answering my prayers to be humble.

Knowing that God is teaching me makes me so glad and I finally know that I have to fix my eyes on my LORD Jesus Christ. Therefore when the third day of my shift came and it was yet another night going without my own personal time, I did not mind at all. The past two nights’ (Thursday & Friday) dinner were in fact provided by God. In addition, I truly learnt His glorious lesson of humility when I volunteered to wash the dishes. All this washing has also brought to my mind John 13 when LORD Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

The God of the bible is not only the Savior of my soul but He is One whom I can cast all my anxiety upon because I know that He cares for me. Pretty scary to pray for humility but I thank Him for teaching me a great lesson. Now it’s time for me to start praying for a girlfriend but I do not know what things He is going to put me through again so that I can become the right person for my girl.

The adventures of cs in Utah continues…

自废武功

Time flies and I have already spent three weeks in Utah. I am beginning to get used to the life over here and also the American culture as I relate to my fellow counterparts. Today is special because this will be my only free Saturday as I will be going on shift from this Wednesday onwards. My shift spans from Wednesdays to Saturdays with a pivotal Wednesday pattern.

All in all, I have no major problems living over here. Thank God for His constant protection and providence all this while. In other words, I have enough to eat, enough to wear and have a fantastic bed for my beauty sleep every night. The weather over here is still very cold with a temperature range of -2 degree Celsius to 11 degree Celsius. I have to wear at least two layers everyday and it can be quite tiring at times when you have to take off your jacket when the room is relatively warm, especially when you are in your office. However, the shift timing which starts at 6am everyday is going to be one thing which I think I will struggle for the next few weeks…

Arriving in Utah to undergo job training leads me to think and reflect on how should I go about fulfilling all the requirements and what is exactly my own expectation of all this training? One thing which I told myself before I even leave Singapore last month is I will need to unlearn all which I have picked up from my previous company and relearn the new culture, the new management and the new environment in this new company. Unlearn and relearn.

I have asked for prayers from my church to pray for God to grant me humility. I felt that this is so important because many times even though I am already very familiar with the tool or software, I will still need to stay open to new ideas, new concepts and new viewpoint from others in order to enhance my learning. I need to stay humble in order to interact and share new ideas on resolving issues as an engineer who not only work well as an individual but more crucially to learn how to work as a team which will go on to achieve the higher goals. Basically, I need to ask God to remove all my prior knowledge on the tools, concepts and software in order that I am able to absorb all these new ideas and viewpoints to enhance my training experience here.

Recently, I almost offended a colleague of mine due to a harsh comment which I have uttered to her. I thank God that eventually I managed to clear the air with her. This brings to my mind again on the importance of being humble and also to focus on how to work well as a team. You are not on your own because you will never make it on your own. You definitely need to work as a team in order to advance forward.

Utah is a state where majority of the LDS church resides. In relating to them, I feel a strong sense of need to preach the Gospel to them in the most accurate manner granted by God. A similar statement spoken by our managing director was, “Our greatest enemies are not our fellow colleagues in our company. Our greatest enemies are our competitors.” Using this statement, I will like to encourage all fellow true believers of Christ that our greatest enemies are not our fellow brothers and sisters who are from LDS but there is only one greatest enemy and he is Satan!” Therefore, let us unlearn all our biased views of the LDS church, relearn the True Gospel of Christ and pray for them to come into the knowledge of the One and only True God of the Bible.