Beautiful Day

Monday, March 29, 2004

Encouragement

Bob Spencer has been such a blessing to me. He has an incredible gifting in encouragement. He also gave me a word this week, which really touched my heart. He's in the process of writing a book about encouragement.
I haven't given much thought about encouragement before, it's not something that I'm good at, but certainly it's something that I need to learn more about.
So I have been thinking a bit about this topic, and here's some of my random thoughts:
It's like an artist making an art work with lots of little fabric pieces of various colours. She needs to sow all these little pieces together onto another bigger fabric to make a pretty pattern. Well, before she sowed them together, all these little pieces seemed meaningless and purposeless. They're just messy. Then she starts to pin these together and start sowing them into a great artwork. The sowing process, the needle and the thread is like the commitment. But for the work to finish, for the little pieces to "become" the meaningful artwork, it takes time and a process. But before they "become", there's this "pinning" period, which is a pretended "become", or a temperary "become", that gives the little pieces a purpose in their being.
Now I see these pins are like the encouragements. We all have our giftings, characters, but they're like the little pieces of fabric, not sowed together, seemingly purposeless and messy. God has called each and everyone of us to a great destiny, which is like the finished artwork. But to get there, it takes time, commitment and process. But instead of letting all the pieces messing around, the artist pin the pieces together, so we can have an idea what the finished work would look like. Although it's not true at the moment, we know once it's finished, it will be true. It brings a sense of purpose to the little pieces. It temporarily pins our hopelessness into His hopefulness so we can get a whole picture of what it will be like when the process is finished, and also it makes the sowing process much easier. Once the work is finished, then we won't need the pins any more, and so encouragement is to offer true identity before it's time, so that the people being encouraged are more motivated and more confident to reach their destiny.
Another way that I see encouragement is like dusting and mopping. A piece of beautiful timber furniture, leaving it for a while, there would be some dust. Now we use a damp cloth to wipe the dust off, and it looks clean and shining again. We live in a world that's full of dust and dirt. If we don't watch our thoughts closely, after a while our thoughts will get dusty, we're polluted with all kinds of negative influences and ideas. Encouragement would be like the damp cloth, that will just gently wipe and wash off all these dust, and leaving our thoughts clean, refreshed and shining again.

As seen by Susan @ 12:49 AM

Monday, March 22, 2004

Packaging

Another thing that I got from Colour conference is the power of packaging. Well, like it or not, the Christianity in western world has been commercialised. So, want to survive or even prosper in the commercialised Christian world? Then you'd better do things properly. Anyone with any hint of business background know the power of packaging in marketing a product: advertising, media, colored brochures, make up, dresses, presentation, wrapping,etc. Actually the guest speaker Charlotte did an example while preaching: she used two toilet paper rolls, one put in a shopping plastic bag, the other was wrapped like a gift with beautiful wrapping paper and ribbons. She asked which one would you choose to have, of course the wrapped one is most people's choice. But the message is the same: toilet paper.
So, it seems to me that "Colour your world" means "package your message". I have to say that Bobbie Houston is an expert in packaging the messages. She does a good job. And the result is obvious.

As seen by Susan @ 1:53 PM

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Colour Your World Women's Conference

It was beautiful. Everything is orchestrated magnificently beautiful.
9 thousand women gather together, storming heaven with praise and worship. It's an incredible experience.
For me, it was like a time of cleaning up. I found myself like a garden without TLC for quite a while, neglected by all sorts of reasons. It really took no time for the weeds to grow. Didn't know when it started, but certainly there're some weeds there, and without management they're shooting up and overtaking the good grass and flowers. And it just looks messy. Well, that's exactly like my life. I haven't guarded and protected the garden, and all kinds of negative attitutes, thinkings and behavior are shooting up all over the places. And it's a time for a big cleaning up.
It actually takes a lot of work. You can't just expect the garden or a house to automatically remain clean and tidy all the time by itself. You have to constantly pull out the weeds, fertilize, water, dusting, vacuuming, etc. ... to keep them under control. And it's the same with our spiritual lives. We have to work on our spiritual lives, water the garden and pull out weeds on a regular basis. I can just see there're so many long long weeds in my spiritual garden, and I need to recognise them and pull them out. And I need to let the good grass be nurtured and have a chance to grow. It takes decision and action.
Then heart is everything. When you have a heart of Jesus, it comes out of you in every way, and people feel it and see it without you even say anything. "You have to be before you can do."
The finale was a perfomance piece, and it was absolutely brilliant. Four male singers lowered down from the ceiling onto the stage singing a beautiful love song, and then little princesses danced around, with full lighting while pink and silver confetti was showered over the stage and the audience, and the whole stadium was like a night time sky with millions of stars shining and moving around. It was just beautiful. Ladies around me were in tears as it was just so nice. And Ellie was among the little princess dancers. They look gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous and adorable. Then Bobbie Houston, the hostess of the conference took Ellie's hands as she walked around and closed the conference.
It was such an experience. I'm so glad that I went. I knew God wanted me to be there this time. And I have to say that it is lifechanging.
Well, you must have thought how messy it is with my writing. Your right. I'm so tired now my mind's just not working. I'm still too excited to go to bed. Anyway, I'd better go, it's 1am.

As seen by Susan @ 12:48 AM

Friday, March 12, 2004

I Confess (Blogger idol week 8)

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while(although I doubt if there's any who has read all), you know that I have been relating my thoughts a lot on Moses' experiences, mostly in his last fourty years.
My confession now is I had a humble revelation today at Hillsong Women. I suddenly realised that I'm actually at the end of his first fourty years(if you know what that means). And now I'm just at the edge of the desert, wondering what to do. I sense the Lord's gentle voice speaking to me, "would you go?" For a while I was shattered, but then I found myself quite happily respond, "Yes Lord, I will."
I don't know how long it will take. But I know it's going to be a desert. .... Hot, dry, harsh, no prosperity, no miracles, no audience, no recognition, no friends, no ministry.... nothing's happening...... But I know what I WILL have: the Lord Himself.
I'm actually quite excited about this revelation. In a way I feel quite relieve:I don't have to strive any more. So for now, I'm going to simply put all my dreams, callings so to speak on the shelf and just forget all about them(isn't that easy!), until the Lord has finished with me in His desert.
I just want to experience Him, and nothing else.

As seen by Susan @ 1:15 AM

Friday, March 05, 2004

Fish, ants, and other

My kids are into Nemo these days. Ellie asked me the other day, "Why can fish breathe in water? Why can't they live outside water?" I said,"Because God made them so."
I suppose we can all learn to swim. But fish are born to swim. Even Ian Thorpe can't live in the water. It's a special "talent" or "gift" that God has put in fish.
Looking at ants I sometimes wonder how on earth these little creatures know so much about weather forecasting and team work.
Almost every animal is good at something. Some are good at smelling, others like running,etc. And God puts all these special skills in them according to His will.
I think it's the same with the spiritual gifts. God puts different gifts in different people according to His will to bring glory to His name. But there's a difference between a calling and normal spiritual gifts. For example, we can all learn to prophesy, but prophets has a higher annointing and capability. We can all sing, but those who are called to be worship leaders have a special talent and gifting that's created by God and it's different than everyone else. Just like, we can all swim, but fishes live in the water!
I think it's very important for us to know what our calling is. Also it's very important to know what your children's callings are so you can help training them in the areas that they're called to excel. No point spending all your money and energy in art classes if your child's calling is to be a soccer player, right? It would be a very hard job for the fish to learn to smell and the dogs to learn to swim. They can learn a bit, but dogs will never beat fishes in swimming.
We are all very different, but we're all good at something. Do you know what your calling is?

As seen by Susan @ 12:25 AM