The United States of America

Let us wait patiently for the release of the 5 new circulating quarters in 2009:

A good link to the History of the Quarter.

"We live in Singapura"

A Great Song by Hossan Leong

A Different Tune, A Different Feel

The fall of snow just before Spring tonight has brought back fond and sad memories to my mind... Enjoy this video.

Ski Novice

Confessions

I wonder if one loses someone whom is very dear to him / her, how does he / she look to God and focus on Him to find himself / herself back to face the reality

A man lost his father whom is a pastor when he was three years old. His mum has to work very hard to support him. Even coming from a Christian family, he cannot help but blame God for taking his dad away in the years of growing up.

“So what if my dad reads the bible at least three times a day? So what if my dad preaches to a congregation of 10 000 people and helps to save souls for Christ daily?” “So what if I do have God as my heavenly father? Stop telling me that! I just want to have a similar loving physical father as well.”

His dad is still dead today. Friends around him have fathers to drive them to schools but he is left alone and does not have even a godly fatherly figure to grow up or model after. His mum having taken over the role of the only breadwinner in the house is constantly away from home working. The event of losing his dad from young has caused turmoil in his life. He finds it hard to focus on Christ even though he does acknowledge that Jesus is the ONLY ONE TRUE HOLY GOD.

Well, I am not this man. I have merely lost a friend whom at that point in time is still not even a close friend of mine. She is just someone whom I have admired and hoped to know her better as a friend. She is also not a believer so going into a life-long relationship with her is simply not possible at all. However, I do not know why God allows her to be taken away at such a young age and furthermore when she still have zero knowledge of Christ. Why? The following day of her death, I was sobbing quietly in my house.

The months following her death were also the months that I rebelled against God for many actions done to hurt Him. As a matter of fact, I reacted in that exact same manner as the man who has lost his father at a tender age. “Stop telling me that God is by my side, ok? Stop telling me facts which me as a Christian already know?!” I simply was sad and emotional when friends of mine reminded that God is constantly with me.

Words of fury can be seen on the msn message windows.

“If you said that God is constantly with me, what is wrong with me eating alone everyday? What is wrong with me not going out to make new friends? You told me God is with me, so why do I even need friends?”

With all these non-loving comments, I have not spoken to many of my Singapore church friends anymore. I will just like to take this chance to apologize to all whom I have offended with my above comments.

Life is indeed all about relationships and relationships certainly surpasses all the cash and materialistic things which you can ever acquire in your lifetime. In my search for a life-long partner, I too longed for such a relationship. However, it seems to elude from me time and time again. Not because I am not intentional enough but I guess if all is not God’s will for me; I will have to learn how to accept the life of celibacy by His grace alone.

Friends of mine, I will like to ask that all of you to stop probing me on BGR issues anymore. With this confession, I will like to truly learn how to submit to God’s will for me in this area. Even if in future I may not be coming back to Singapore ever again, I do pray and hope that I can still hold on to God’s Truth and live out my life as a true blue believer in Christ, experiencing His love and leaning on to His grace in life.

May God bless all of you. Amen.

Seasons

Spring

Plants begin to flower

Clocks are put foward one hour

More daylight hours and the weather becomes warmer

Summer

Hot, dry weather

Long hours of daylight

People often go the the beaches and have barbeques

Autumn

Leaves fall off trees

Clocks are put back one hour

Weather becomes cooler with fewer daylight hours

Winter

Cold, wet weather

Short hours of daylight

Activities include skiing, ice skating and building snowman

Movie Recommendation

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A movie that induces you to think about your life and what you have been doing all this while. Watch it if you are free... :)

Good Job, My Job

There is this joke going around in my workplace. Whenever somebody says, “Good Job!” to you, think about this for a second. You are just doing your job.

Titled this post as “Good Job, My Job” simply because I am just doing my job and it is a good job done. Much thoughts in this post has accumulated in my mind after watching the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada”

As the global economy looms, many people are either jobless, going for interviews or holding tight to their current jobs with fear and trembling. The work week has been cut short to just maybe three or four days out of five now. If you go for an eye check, the optometrist will ask you to go for LASIK. If you go for car inspection, the mechanic will ask you to perform an overhaul of your entire car. If you go for dental check, the dentist will ask you to do all sorts of polishing and crowns. All this and more just to earn your cash away.

Times are really bad and nobody knows exactly how long will the current poor economy go on. Need a job to pay your rent, your house mortgage and many more things but that job still eludes from you. Nobody is going to talk about that dream job at least for this year. Everyone just wants to get a job.

My friends, brace on. Life is more than just that dream job, that good job or just that job. Life is all about relationships. Take this time to be with your families and loved ones. Catch up on the time which you have lost while you were doing that dream job, good job or just that job. Guess you will feel happier than just complaining about the dying economy. Hey, today is the day! Show your care and concern to your loved ones. Have a blessed Valentine’s Day! =)

Let the Healing Begins...

The most common saying about healing I guess is this, “Time will heal everything.”

In my opinion, I think this is absolutely right simply because our imperfect minds do not retain 100% of the events or information even after a mere 24 hours. Hence with time (which only has an addition function), I will say about 100% of the events or information is already lost. Much like an unresolved leakage current to your chip causing much power consumption or lost information.

And therefore, healing can begin because most or in fact all of the events or information is lost. Even when I am a memory chip manufacturer, I cannot help in this retaining of information.

The only way to retain information I guess is to keep refreshing the events or information. It works for microchips and I think it works for human minds.

In conclusion, in order for healing to truly begin, I think I will have to terminate refreshing of events or information in my imperfect mind and making use of prolonged timing to induce healing.

Where is God in this picture?

God being my wonderful counselor will be the One to displace the refreshing of events or information in my imperfect mind. The only way is to input His Word into my mind in order to displace past memories.

Bro Soh's Liberty Hills APT

My 1st Acoustic Guitar

Self-Cooked Dinner @ Liberty Hills

CNY Steamboat in UT 2009

Let's embrace the Word of GOD

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” And this person is my LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ. He came to show us the Way, to shine as the Light of the World and to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

One key verse in the book of John is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

A closer study on this verse using blueletterbible.org shows this:

Therefore upon close consideration, I guess I am a lousy student of the Word of God because there is still so much to learn and apply from the Bible. Let’s embrace the Word of God as our only treasure in our lives. Let us read through the Bible every year and be immersed in learning all about our Father’s attributes, remembering history is HIS-story…

My Room and My Car in US

Praises & Thanksgivings to GOD

Thank God that I have finally managed to settle my apartment and car issues as of today. All PRAISES to HIM and HIM ONLY. Amen. :)

Visiting my Pastor from Singapore

My Bed Assembled

08's Lessons for Trialing Years Ahead

2008 is a year of learning for me. A year where I learnt how to resign from my job. A year of flying twenty-four hours to the other side of the globe. A year of learning how to drive on the right side of the road. A year of learning how to take good photographs. A year of learning how to mourn for a friend.

This is a year where I have to learn too many things and also a year where I made real godly friends. This is also a year where I am exposed and immersed in the American culture in entirety. This is also a year where I have gone through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter seasons. This is also a year where I am found sobbing, weeping and crying the most in front of the LORD.

A year where I realize what is the most important thing in life. A year where I have truly learnt the most wonderful gift in life is to be able to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ.

2009 is just around the corner and as the whole world wishes one another “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” on a hourly basis of various time zones; it is indeed time to make new year resolutions once again which according to my Utah Pastor that normally they will not last for more than three days. How true. ~haha~

A new year ahead but my LORD has already made all things NEW as shared by my Utah Pastor during last church prayer meeting. A new goal for myself will be to memorize a verse from each individual book of the bible. Therefore, I hope that when the time comes again for me to reflect on 2009, I can share with all of you the sixty-six verses which I have memorized in the new year.

Have a blessed 2009. God bless you. Amen!

My 1st White Christmas

T.O.W upon my LORD

Early this year when I first stepped into US for my job training in Feb, there was a heavy snowstorm which has not been experienced in Utah at least for the last ten years. The main road SR-92 to my company was closed and many cars were being towed away from the road after the closure. Employees in my company could not go home for that day as the only road was closed. It was quite a chaotic situation but the towing company did earn a cool US$30,000! (Estimated towing fee is US$100 per vehicle and there are probably about three hundred vehicles on SR-92 that day.)

Okay, so much for my introduction for this blog posting. The main idea to get back is TOW. I titled this post, “T.O.W upon my LORD”. T.O.W here has a similar idea to cars being towed as I definitely need the strength of my LORD to tow me through these two years of working in the US. Therefore, this post which is written on this day when I am going to report to my next company will serve as a post which I can look back after my two years here in Utah.

T.O.W upon my LORD. T.O.W in my context here means Trust.Obey.Wait upon my LORD. After all that has happened in this year and many accounts of personal reflection, I realized that ultimately I can only trust upon my LORD, obey upon my LORD and wait upon my LORD. It is true and each of these verbs (action words) cannot do without the presence of the other two. I cannot trust my LORD without obeying and waiting upon my LORD. I cannot obey my LORD without trusting and waiting upon my LORD. I cannot wait upon my LORD without trusting and obeying my LORD.

Very often, I think Christians need to trust upon the LORD based solely on the promises spelt out clearly by Him whom has revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ in the Bible. One key verse which I can memorize and remind myself daily to trust the LORD is:

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his promise. - Romans 8:28

A GREAT PROMISE by the LORD! Need to remember, mediate and recite it daily. Amen to this fantastic verse.

Next comes obeying upon the LORD. Jesus Himself said that John 14:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” And again down the passage in verse 21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

With trust upon my LORD as my firm foundation, I can obey my LORD. Based solely on His promise in Romans 8:28, I gladly obey His commands and observe John 14:15 and John 14:21. The simple reason is I treasure my relationship with Him and want to further my fellowship with Him to experience His love more each day of my life.

With the trust and obedience to my LORD, it comes in naturally that I will need to wait upon my LORD for all things which I am sure He will gladly grant to me according to His sovereign timing. Psalm 27:14 is one memory verse to rejuvenate my soul as I wait upon my LORD:

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. – Psalm 27:14

I guess putting these three faith action words under the acronym of T.O.W leave me a good impression of what it is really like to T.O.W upon my LORD. It is like my spiritual vehicle is depending upon the sole strength of my LORD to go through the highs and lows of life. Seriously praying that I will not be distracted for the coming New Year and be always TOWing upon my LORD. Amen.

Satan's AGM for 2009 & Beyond

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said,

"We can't keep people from going to pray."

"We can't keep them from reading their holy books and knowing the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their GOD."

"Once they gain that connection with GOD, our power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their prayers; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with GOD."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil: "Distract them from gaining hold of their GOD and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children."

"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive."

"To keep the TV, DVDs, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers."

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

"Invade their driving moments with billboards."

"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweep stakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives."

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night."

"Give them headaches too!"

"If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere."

"That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them distractions to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of life."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."

"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."

"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, and busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences.

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from GOD."

"Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause." "It will work!" "It will work!"

It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing people everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of GOD to change lives. I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes? You be the judge!!!!! Does "BUSY" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

Please pass this on, if you aren't too BUSY ...

Psalm 105

 1 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; 

       make known among the nations what he has done.

 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; 

       tell of all his wonderful acts.

 3 Glory in his holy name; 

       let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

 4 Look to the LORD and his strength; 

       seek his face always.

 5 Remember the wonders he has done, 

       his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

 6 O descendants of Abraham his servant, 

       O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.

 7 He is the LORD our God; 

       his judgments are in all the earth.

 8 He remembers his covenant forever, 

       the word he commanded, for a thousand generations,

 9 the covenant he made with Abraham, 

       the oath he swore to Isaac.

 10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, 

       to Israel as an everlasting covenant:

 11 "To you I will give the land of Canaan 

       as the portion you will inherit."

 12 When they were but few in number, 

       few indeed, and strangers in it,

 13 they wandered from nation to nation, 

       from one kingdom to another.

 14 He allowed no one to oppress them; 

       for their sake he rebuked kings:

 15 "Do not touch my anointed ones; 

       do my prophets no harm."

 16 He called down famine on the land 

       and destroyed all their supplies of food;

 17 and he sent a man before them— 

       Joseph, sold as a slave.

 18 They bruised his feet with shackles, 

       his neck was put in irons,

 19 till what he foretold came to pass, 

       till the word of the LORD proved him true.

 20 The king sent and released him, 

       the ruler of peoples set him free.

 21 He made him master of his household, 

       ruler over all he possessed,

 22 to instruct his princes as he pleased 

       and teach his elders wisdom.

 23 Then Israel entered Egypt; 

       Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.

 24 The LORD made his people very fruitful; 

       he made them too numerous for their foes,

 25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people, 

       to conspire against his servants.

 26 He sent Moses his servant, 

       and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

 27 They performed his miraculous signs among them, 

       his wonders in the land of Ham.

 28 He sent darkness and made the land dark— 

       for had they not rebelled against his words?

 29 He turned their waters into blood, 

       causing their fish to die.

 30 Their land teemed with frogs, 

       which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.

 31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, 

       and gnats throughout their country.

 32 He turned their rain into hail, 

       with lightning throughout their land;

 33 he struck down their vines and fig trees 

       and shattered the trees of their country.

 34 He spoke, and the locusts came, 

       grasshoppers without number;

 35 they ate up every green thing in their land, 

       ate up the produce of their soil.

 36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land, 

       the firstfruits of all their manhood.

 37 He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold, 

       and from among their tribes no one faltered.

 38 Egypt was glad when they left, 

       because dread of Israel had fallen on them.

 39 He spread out a cloud as a covering, 

       and a fire to give light at night.

 40 They asked, and he brought them quail 

       and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

 41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out; 

       like a river it flowed in the desert.

 42 For he remembered his holy promise 

       given to his servant Abraham.

 43 He brought out his people with rejoicing, 

       his chosen ones with shouts of joy;

 44 he gave them the lands of the nations, 

       and they fell heir to what others had toiled for-

 45 that they might keep his precepts 

       and observe his laws. 

       Praise the LORD.