Heard a message today at ALC and something caught my attention. If a diamond is left on the floor, no one would notice its beauty and value. If diamonds are carefully connected and put together, they become jewel. Then, it needs a setting, setting to make it special. How true is that. Following is a mixture of my thoughts and what I heard.
Diamond on its own can be precious or rubbish depending the setting it is. Yet, a jewelry needs another setting to make it special too. If that jewelry is displayed in a shop or someplace, it would only be noticeable if it is really good and caught someone's attention. But if someone buys and wear it, it will depend on the owner to make it valuable. If left in the drawer, no one will know about it. However, if the person decides to wear it as part of the outfit or outlook he/she wants to display, it becomes more meaningful and valuable. Perhaps it is not a very good explanation of what I have in mind but hopefully whoever is reading gets what I mean (I'm very bad at articulating). It is the owner's decision to make full use of it, not just jewelry but it could be many other things. Very often the people we would like to reach out to are someone that is close or dear to us, our family, friends, relatives or someone else. If we ourselves are not doing what we suppose to do, how can we be a role model and influence others, especially in convincing them? Because they could say, "look, you're not even doing this", or, "I don't see that in your lifestyle". How would you feel?
God created us to fulfill his purpose, and it is our decision to find that purpose He intended us to be, and live a purpose-driven life, not following the ways of the world. The bible says "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God". I just started my journey not along ago following the "Purpose Driven Life" book by Rick Warren (still very early stages though =p). One thing that stands out time after time at the beginning is we have to always remember, our life is a temporary assignment. But, are we making full use of it?
Psalm 39:4 - LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away.
We use our brains to think, then carry out an action, well, most of the time anyway. Perhaps there are times we just do certain stuff without thinking much or none at all, perhaps certain things had become our daily routine or something that we do is so natural that we don't think twice. We ought to have our daily quiet time with God, or study the bible frequently, but how many of us are actually doing it? I myself, in particular, am so obsessed with watching shows, especially cooking competitions, or anime series, or drama on tv because I don't have a daily job at the moment. The book mentioned that every single thing I do has a consequence in my future. Now, wouldn't anyone be afraid after reading that??? Now, back to the action and thoughts, we can see such a clear relationship, or don't, because it part of our nature as humans. My point is, how powerful our thoughts are, to affect what we do in our daily life. If we really let God into our lives completely, we should let the Holy Spirit to lead us too in our thinking, not just certain aspects of our life. However, it is easier said than done. I believe what we can do is to pray that God will help us, guide us to truly surrender. It might takes years to be able to do that. "Life is a test, a trust, and temporary assignment". Perhaps it will always be a battle until the very last day of our lives, but we should never give up because the enemy has been defeated. God never fails, His Word never fails, I know my God made a way for me, salvation is here.
To end, a passage from "Purpose Driven Life".
"When life gets tough, when you're overwhelmed with doubt, or when you wonder if living for Christ is worth the effort, remember that you are not home yet. At death you won't leave home - you'll go home."
Hillsong - Salvation is Here
Hillsong - With Everything (Finally found this song! :) )
ALM UK - Take My Life
Gungor - Beautiful Things
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3 comments:
i like like like the post :D
coincides with some of the things i learned in neccc. :) we just can't praise the lord enough :)
ohhh and you finally started "purpose driven life"!! I haven't til now LOL anyways, hope you'll share more about what you learn there! :D
wa all songs??? must be God's planning.haha.PTL! Yea, you gave me 2 years ago, and then Bob gave me last Christmas, actually it's been a sign for me to start but I never took notice of it. Might or might not be late to start now, but it's better than never I guess.haha.
Seems like you get a lot out of NECCC this year and really happy for you :) Will wait to see you post more about it when you not so busy coz I know exams are coming up for you lots.haha. Yea, I will try to gather my thoughts as I go through the book. There's a tendency that I want to post after every single chapter, but somehow I feel it's better to go through a few and do a collective thinking.
Anyway hope the 'new' term starts great for you, and that you feel refreshed coming back from the conference.
May God bless you. :)
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