Beautiful Day

Sunday, October 26, 2003

Opera House experience

Ellie played piano in a concert at the Sydney Opera House today. She's 5. She played really well, perfect to my standard, with no mistakes. She's the youngest player today(the oldest is 17 years old) and she got the loudest applaud. She wasn't nervous at all, and she walked out to the stage with her ballet style steps, very elegant. The song she played today is called Sonatina No 36 No 1, Vivace, by Clementi. She has been practising so hard for this concert and she's so thrilled for the experience. Her teacher's very happy,too. She came up to her and said, "Ellie, you're the best today!"

We're so proud of her!

As seen by Susan @ 4:37 PM

Friday, October 24, 2003

To give or not to give?

Years ago I heard about this story, it still has influence over me when it comes to giving. I might not recall all the detail right, but basically it goes like this:
Someone walked past a train station one day where there're lots of beggars around. She felt the Lord spoken in her spirit to take one of them home. She did. She took the beggar home, fed, sheltered her and blessed her. The beggar was so touched and moved by her generosity and love and was saved and transformed.
The second time she walked past the train station again, and she felt the Lord spoken to her once again. She did the same thing, and the same thing happened again: the beggar got saved.
The third time she walked past the train station. Overwhelmed by the joy of the previous experience, she just rushed to someone and took the beggar home, neglecting that the Lord didn't speak to her this time. And she got robbed.

When we're partnering with God, we have to be sensitive and obedient to his every move and direction. Moses made a big mistake by striking the rock twice. He missed out on the promised land because he did something that the Lord hasn't told him to do.
And how many times have we made the same mistakes? How many times do we rush out to do something out of frustration and impatience? and missing out the Lord's promise and provision after all?
Oh, mercy!

As seen by Susan @ 2:17 PM

Monday, October 20, 2003

Replace

"Whatever God takes away, He replaces it with Himself."
This is an old song that had spoken to me so much time after time. Ever since I became a Christian, this lyrics has been the feature of my life. He takes away, and He replaces, He takes away, and He blesses...until I have not much left, and all I have is Jesus.
The process is painful, yet in the same time it's joyful. Just like pruning: when you cut off the unwanted branches, it hurts! and it doesn't look right for the moment, but in due time it'll bring rewards.
This morning I felt heaps of emotion going through me. First I put on an old hillsong cassette tape in the car while taking kids to schools, and I just felt the presence of God and the annointing was so intense in the car(I always love the old Hillsong music more as there was such a freshness and God's breath in them) that I just had to yell out "praise God! Thank you,Lord" a few times(which doesn't sound like me, I'm pretty quiet most of the time). Yet in the meantime, I felt sad. I felt helplessly lonely. It's hard to even share my feelings with anyone. I know once again, I'll have to let go, something that I know it's not doing me good any more, but I still like to hang on with it. And I felt sentimental.
But after I've made my decision, the emotions didn't really hang around too long. I guess it's only painful when I'm struggling with it, and trying to hang on with it. Once I said, Ok, Lord, just take it, I actually felt quite free. Seems like a burden lifted off. And all day long I just feel this sweet presence of the Holy Spirit, I actually feel a bit drunk.

As seen by Susan @ 10:45 AM

Sunday, October 19, 2003

Kate's walking!

Katie took 3 little steps all by herself today!
We're so thrilled to see her finally taking off. She's so cute these days, full of expressions.

As seen by Susan @ 9:33 PM

Friday, October 17, 2003

I can do this

If I were Moses, I can't divide the waters of the sea, but I can stretch out my hand over the sea. (Exodus 14:21)
If I were the widow, I can't make the vessels produce oil, but I can go and borrow empty vessels from all my neighbours.(2 Kings 4:3)
If I were that little boy, I can't feed 5 thousands of people, but I can give Jesus my fish and chip(oops, I mean loaf).
If God tells me to do His will, I don't have to panic about the task: there's something I can do.

As seen by Susan @ 12:44 AM

Monday, October 13, 2003

"And I will harden Pharaoh's heart......" (Exodus 7:3)

When Moses received his mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he had been in the desert for 40 years. He couldn't think clearly and couldn't talk properly. He said,"O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue......please send someone else to do it." (Exodus 4:10-13)
Do you ever feel like Moses when you felt called into a certain area by God? You're completely uneducated and unequipped in this area plus you have been in the desert for so many years, you don't even know if the Lord still wants to use you.
And maybe, finally you decide you'll obey this calling, and step out in faith, and you pray, "OK, Lord, if this is you, I'll do it. But give me all the gifts that I need, annoint me for the job, and give me grace and favour before the people that I need to speak to, so that they will listen to my words and be convinced... overall, just make it an easy job for me."
Moses must have prayed the same prayer, I guess, to let Pharaoh listen to him.
But God said,"But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hands on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."
It was hard enough as it is, and when God made it hard, it WAS tough. It was impossible for a human Moses to do the job. But over the centuries people remember that famous Exodus was led by the hand of God.
So my dear friends, if you feel that you're in the similar situation like Moses, that everything seem to work against you, no matter how hard you've tried you are getting nowhere, and you know that God has called you into this, don't lose heart! As God is going to do the job HIMSELF!

As seen by Susan @ 11:19 AM

Thursday, October 02, 2003

Rejection

I have been thinking about rejection in a profession sense. For example, a salesperson tries to sell some products. Some people will like the products and buy, some people will reject. A good salesperson doesn't mean that he doesn't get rejected, on the contrary, he probably gets the most rejection. But on the amount of mass rejection stands out the mass sales volumn. Another example could be a missionary, trying to convert people's belief. Some people will be converted, and some people will reject. A good missionary doesn't mean that everyone will like him and accept him, in fact, Jesus had the most rejection than anyone else in the world.

Scenario 1
Please read my earlier blog with the title name"Baby Walk" in August. (click on the right hand side for August archive).
This is a new attempt. Everything's new: you're new, the business is new, you're inexperienced. There's a lot of learning on the way. You deal with rejection like the baby deal with falling down while learning to walk--you get stronger and stronger and eventually you take off.
There's a pattern: step out-- fall down-- hurt--healed(forget)--try again. Usually there's quite a bit of time in between.

Scenario 2
An adult with a weak bone (as he has never thought of the need of taking Calcium!). He walked on the road and tripped over. And ouch! He broke his bone and was taken into the hospital. It hurt him bad, and he never wanted to fall again.
This is the kind of people that have got themselves involved in a business. They meet rejection and they get hurt. And their way of thinking is too old and too stale and lack of calcium. It just takes them too long to recover. And they don't want to think about business ever again.

Scenario 3
Professional volleyball player.
Have you ever watched on TV how the Japanese volleyball coach trains his players how to catch the volleyballs? If your a Chinese, I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.
The coach will strike the volleyballs in different directions, and the player had to jump like a fish, hit the ground and then do somersaults to get up quickly and then jump out again trying to catch another ball. He keeps falling down, rolling over, and getting up, falling down again, and getting up again. He goes wherever the ball goes, without even thinking, it becomes almost an instinct. He has developed a way of falling so he wouldn't get too hurt. And during the training session or a match, he wouldn't hesitate to fall in order to catch the balls. And he gets up in no time. He's strong, fit, and flexible. He's fast, sharp, and react immediately.
Well, obviously this is the successful salesperson. He meets a lot of rejection, but he just goes past, past, past. Not interested? past, next one! not interested? past again,still next one... He goes wherever possibilities arise, he reacts almost instinctively, he does his best to "catch" them, and if he catches he catches, if he misses he missess, and he rolls up in no time. He doesn't have time for hurt, he just redirects all his energy toward the next catch.

Hm, this speaks a lot to me. It looks like the difference between a winner and a loser is the time that is allowed after each rejection. And the key to deal with rejection is to quickly redirect your energy from feeling hurt to the next target. When you move quickly, the new excitement will take over the sickening feeling before it takes root. Also learn how to fall, understand why people reject and develop a strategy to respond, plays a very important part of our well being.

As seen by Susan @ 1:40 AM