Had an absolutely phenomenal meeting with our key pastoral team in the university ministry this Saturday (I wish we took some photos!)

We spent heaps of time to pray and wait on God. His presence was full thick in the room and prophetic words just flowed like anything. I was in awe of how clearly God was speaking to us regarding our lives and the seasons to come.

We then took the next 2.5 hours taking turns on the ‘hot seat’ – we shot each other like 50 individually tailored questions each ranging from light stuff like, “if you had one last meal, what would it b?e” (ok so maybe one of our leaders found that the hardest questions to answer) to heavier ones like “where do you see God taking you in your career” to super heavy ones like “show us your criteria” (haha).

As many shared from their lives and hearts, I couldn’t help but to feel such a sense of anticipation for this coming year. Ever since we pioneered this ministry in 2006 with a whopping 6 of us, God’s been not only adding in quantity; but I think even more importantly, He’s been assembling His Kingdom dream team. If I do nothing else in 2009 in Powerhouse, I pray God will use me to empowering & unleash a leadership team of student leaders who will lead with love, wisdom, integrity and God’s anointing!

The only downside – 7 out of 10 of us are sick. Never have 4.5 hour meetings in a room with bad ventilation with sick people. How’s that for doing life together!

Had an awesome day today with both my spiritual and natural family – had lunch with some of the guys and girls helping out with the group, a nice “sports” (yes that word is being used very loosely) afternoon in the park, and to the Brooke Fraser concert with my sister and friends at night.

Seriously, I don’t remember having so much fun in such a long long time. I love the church family!!! You can read Trung & Tash’s accounts here and here (just disregard the parts about me whining and crying out nurse NURSE!). Man it was just so great to be able to come together (with new friends too), kick the ball around, act a little be spastic, and feel like having a family day and bask in each others love (ok maybe a bit too much).

Just want to say to my 2nd family – love & appreciate you guys heaps. Seriously I can not think of better bunch of people to do life with.

Ok some photos (thank you facebook… I mean Jien-Mae):

Our water balloon chucking game. I think this photo was right when I yelled out, “LEON!!” for throwing it too hard; and then seeing it burst in the palm of my hand.

… the result …

… the winners …

Trung and my evil younger brother Mark. Why does Trung still have a wet patch even though they won… well – ask Mark. I guess we can say that merely winning isn’t enough for Mark haha. (I deny ever having telling you to peg it dude)

Nice little family shot… sorry to all the people who were off still playing / sitting at the other bench etc. The guy who looks too young is Sylv’s little brother. Yes, he is too young and yes he is massive for a 6 year old.

And to close it off – me doing the dolphin style. One of the many games invented today (some are a bit too crude to mention). I was trying to jump through the hula-hoop.

Wow this is turning to be one massive post. Ok the cliffnote version of tonite! Bought my dear sis and my dear self and my dear good friend Ray tickets to see Brooke Fraser @ Tivoli. It turned out to be a great night of not just great music, but also just spending quality time together. Was really grateful for that time together as well with others like my BFF Nick
(hahaha), Cait (stirrer! was good to catch up), Justin (down in front!!), John the guitarist (please seat in your designated seating!), baby Mok (whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?), Lis, Ames & Charis etc.

Jess – i know you secretly read this blog. Thanks for dinner and a great time! Glad you liked Brooke… Love ya sis (big punch in the arm).

Dear all,

Welcome to swatvac! Probably not the great news to hear but you are here . We trust that you are studying hard with the conviction that everything we do in this life is for God & His glory!

In this short (promise!) edition of the in house word; just thought I could offer some tips during this no doubt busy and stressful time!

1. Eat & sleep sufficiently – pace yourself. We are not just living for our exams!

2. Pray & invite God’s presence before you revise or study. Take breaks to just pray and worship God – you’ll be amazed by the refreshment we draw when we place our focus on God!

3. After we’re done with studies & eventually exams, don’t worry any more about it. Worrying does not help us one bit! Save our energy and focus for more study

4. Honour God by not missing out on LG or church. As we choose to honour Him, He will honour us.

5. Smile . We are called to be light to impact the world – our non-Christian friends should see the hope & peace we have in Christ.

Some scriptures for you during this time (just to get you started): Col 3:23, Phi 4:6-7, 1 Pet 5:7, Jos 1:7-9, Mt 6:25-34

During life group at Powerhouse over the weekend, God spoke to us very clearly about remaining and abiding in Him through a couple of prophetic words, check this out:

(Jn 15:4-5) Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Let’s continue to remain in our God in this season and beyond – by entrusting Him our lives, spending time with Him daily, and seeking Him in His house with our brothers and sisters. His promise is for fruitfulness.

Praying for you,

Chris

It’s been a super packed weekend – lots of stuff to blog about:

1. There was this cheese at Charis’ birthday which tastes like chicken flavoured Extra gum (ok there you go – i blogged)

2. The Pirates nite which Tina & Sherin organised to raise funds for an orphanage (ARGH…. terrible movie – boring!!)

Anyways the highlight was definitely life group this afternoon. I was so blown away by the presence of God and His words that flowed. It just seems like every single time we come together God just visits us in such incredible ways!

Today was no exception – it felt like we could’ve just kept going on in worship. After that the prophetic words just flowed and so many of us were really ministered to.

It’s been a bit crazy in this season as we’ve been trying to make sense of what God is doing in our community. But definitely He is at work in incredible ways.

PHers – let’s continue to seek Him and remain in Him like the branches to the true vine. Love you guys!

It’s been a crazy day! Had the privilege of serving on worship team for our morning service and then met up with the PH guys for a bit of fellowship and group mentoring. We had a meeting tonight as well so I am totally beat & spent (really have not felt this tired for a long time!). Will keep this short.

Today over mentoring at little  Taipei, we talked about being men of character, we talked about making the right decisions and being an example through total biblical living. Though many of us had a long day, the Holy Spirit did speak to us deeply.

I asked all of them to asked themselves (& their God) a few questions. I think this will be something we will continue to touch on through this season.

Question #1:

When was the last time I felt challenged & convicted by God through reading His Word or hearing Him through various forms? When was the last time something hit me so hard that I felt compelled to change?

Interesting and convicting question isn’t? I think this will probably reveal whether we have become complacent in our character growth or not. How do you rate?

Today (being public holiday!), Leon (aka the best looking man around) & I had our long awaited catch up in the afternoon. We sat in his room, closed the door, whipped out the guitar and began to worship God together. It was such an awesome time – just adoring God without any agenda, laying down our lives before Him and waiting for Him to speak.

God really did speak to us during that time – first to what we’re going through personally, and later about our ministry and the group. It was such a moment with God and a really refreshing time. I remember just this time of sitting in silence and being in total awe of God’s presence & His Word to us. I think we both felt that we came back to that place of that first love with God again; where everything else is just stripped away and we placed Him at the centre. We confessed that He is our God, and our reason for every step we take in this life. God also spoke clearly about other things regarding our lives (which is not the point of this post =p).

We then proceeded on to pray for those we are serving, for Ablaze and for Powerhouse. We prayed for things that we felt God was wanting to deal with, for individuals and just for that new level. Towards the end, as we were praying for the new generation of spiritual leaders (not positionally, but in life & character) to rise up, God gave us a glimpse of the great things He has in store for those in Ablaze and particularly in Powerhouse. He said that the glory of the latter house will be greater than that of the former; that the generation who will come will rise above and beyond the previous generation; that just as He is pouring out the new wine, He is making the new wineskins. There will be exploits that this generation will do for the Kingdom which will far exceed even what we can comprehend or envision right now. You (those young people reading this) will take the promised land.

As God was speaking to us, He was not only showing us the things to come; but He was challenging and encouraging Leon & myself to get on board with His purpose. We felt very much that God was asking us to be like the armour bearers to the next generation. To serve you guys and to release & empower you so that you can do the greaters things that we will not be able to do. God was challenging us to be like stepping stones – that through our mentorship, our support, our encouragement behind the scenes, and our unspoken sacrifices; you as the new generation will be able to rise up above & beyond where we will go.

It was a real God-time, as we prayed that God will continue to help us to have the humility, faithfulness & wisdom to serve Powerhouse and the wonderful young people He has entrusted us to serve & lead. We asked Him to humble us so that we will be able to lift up each and every single young person to fulfil their God-given potential and realise their God-ordained destiny. We asked Him to help us to continue having this revelation of just how great it is to be able to lay down our lives for His Kingdom and His people. We asked God that He would help us pour out our lives, however inadequate we are; and that He will use that life impartation to bring a deep work birthed by the Spirit of God.

To Powerhouse – we are not perfect and there is so much room to grow. But we are committed to you! We are committed to serving you and being your armour bearers so that the things of God will be realised in your life. It’s an honour to serve all of you!

Looking back at my own life, I’m so grateful for those who have poured out their lives selflessly into mine (and so many men & women still do – thank you). It’s because of their love & leadership that I am here today. What a privilege it is to give back!

Yes this is incredible. Despite the circumstances, Em is placing her faith in God and she’s seeing amazing things in her family. what an unbelievable young woman of God!

Hi all,

God is so good to us! I’m so convinced that it really is our greatest privilege to be alive today, and to have the opportunity to live this life for His pleasure and His glory. It’s become apparent to me that God is a truly doing a new & deep work in our midst. I’m so blown away by all the wonderful things that are happening because it’s not us, it’s Him. It’s all about Jesus!

As of late, God has been so real & His loving, holy presence has been so tangible every single time we’ve met together and worshipped Him. Last night at Powerhouse we had a time that could only be described as out of this world. We decided to start life group by having a time of worship & prayer for one another at about 3:15. 1 hour 45 minutes later (after lots of prayer, some praise & lots of worship, some words of prophecy, time of listening to God) we all just stood in awe at how real God was to us and how undeniable His presence and hand was in our lives (this seems to be becoming a habit for us). Personally I was so blown away by the fact that the God of the universe would come to us and visit us in such an awesome way. We were seeing the Acts 2 church once again before our eyes – when believers devoted themselves to God and stood in awe of who He is. I couldn’t help but feel something that I’ve felt so many times before – I’m falling in love with Jesus… again.

Have you ever been in love? I’m not talking about just attraction or romantic feelings – but really in love? A great preacher, Voddie Baucham describes love as an act of the will, accompanied by emotion, that leads to action on behalf of its object (yes you can chew on that for a while!). The apostle Paul prays for the believers in the church in Phillipi like this: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Wow! The Bible is full of stories, illustrations and promises of God’s love for us. He loves us with an everlasting love. His love is unconditional. What about our response? See when we love someone – it’s not heavy or burdensome. Giving, sacrificing & even laying down your life is a joy in light of God’s love.

During the time of life group, God spoke to us through the story of Mary who came to Simon’s house (at the time filled with Pharisees) to meet Jesus with an alabaster jar of perfume. All four of the gospels have their account of this story. In all four accounts, she was indignant and extravagant in her love towards Jesus. In all four accounts, her zealousness convicted those around her and made them uncomfortable. Most of all, in every account – Jesus gladly accepted her offering.

Can you imagine that picture? The sinful woman, rejected by society; walked into a house full of the social elite where Jesus was. There she brought her most prized possession – scholars tell us that the jar of perfume which was worth a year’s wages was very likely the family heirloom and her one treasured possession. Can you imagine one sinful woman, taking in her hands the most precious thing that she owned, and in one moment pouring out all of it for her God. What would motivate a person to do that? What sense does it make to give away so much of what you owned for one moment of worship with God? How much more could she have done with one whole year’s wages!

Yet, her love for Jesus (or rather, her love response for Jesus’ love) brought her something that all the treasures in the world couldn’t buy – forgiveness, restoration, and a legacy that will live forever. Jesus Himself said, “wherever the gospel is preached, her story will be told”.

This is the life of worship. When we come before God with our lives – our moments, our days, our dreams & plans, our fears, our joys, our gifts & talents – when we come to God with all of us and say, “God, this is for You”, and we pour it all out before and give it to Him – then we are living that life of worship. See when we love someone; it’s not burdensome to give – it’s not an obligation, it’s a joy! We gladly pour out all that we have, and all that we are, and give ourselves over to God.

Do you know that He loves you today? God is passionately in love with His people. What about you? Are you in love with Him?

My prayer for us for this season is that we will be a people who are passionately in love with their God because of His love for us; extravagant worshippers who will pour out our lives like the drink offering. Out of the place will come the greatest exploits we will ever see. Not for us, but for His name & His pleasure. He is worthy!

See you at church,

Chris