Facing the Giants

"David, I've asked God since you were a baby that He would show how strong He is in your life, and that through you, people will see how good He is."

"Then why would He make me so small and weak?"

"To show how mighty He is."

---

"Grant, I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain. And both of them prayed for rain, but only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it. Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?"

"The one who prepared his fields for it."

"Which one are you? God will send the rain when He's ready. You need to prepare your field to receive it."

---

The above are two conversation excerpts from the movie Facing the Giants. The movie touched me in more ways than one. We may be small and weak, but that doesn't matter. As long as we have Him, He will work through our weaknesses to show His power. Do you have faith to believe that He will send the rain? Preparing your field will show your faith. In everything, just do your best. Do it for Him, for His glory and to honour His name. Do the best and leave the rest to God. With Him, nothing is impossible.

Never give up. Never backdown. Never lose faith.

I shall thus be called.. JONNIE PROSKUNEO!!

today was chatting with lingling on msn. then somehow we got to the topic of names. so we were saying some of us got long names. she's yvonne ecclesia, then got my bro francis genesis, keith corinthians, jessie meredith, etc. she said it was very trendly back then. lol. so i tot, yeah i'll have one for myself too. i prefer jonnie to jonathan, so i'll take jonnie. i was thinking of jonnie shachah, which i think is not bad. then i ran a little search on the internet on shachah, and google returned some links. shachah is hebrew for worship, and in greek, it's proskuneo! so i tot jonnie prokuneo sounds nicer than jonnie shachah, and thus it shall be!! wahahaha... i think it suits me very well! proskuneo literally means to bow down or to bend the knee, and translated it means worship. y i say it suits me very well, is got story one. tell u all next time ba. haha.. stay tuned!

well anyway, i wanna update on the past two days also. i feel that i'm such a blessed man! 20th was my birthday, and it so happens that my boss' boss, one of the directors at my PA company, gave HR dept, admin dept, finance dept and IT dept a treat for lunch. and they celebrated my birthday for me too!! haha.. very happy la. got colleagues celebrating my birthday when i'm only in the company for a month, and i'm only an intern. then in the evening i met my cell and zhijin for dinner at east coast. the beef kway teow is really nice! the soup is good! then after that we went to the beach and they celebrated my birthday for me.

shuiting weicong michelle jinhao left for the beach earlier, cos i was still hungry and wanted to eat. lol. then at the beach, they drew a big heart shape with the words "haPi birThdAy zHen hUa ge"(something like that la). and and, they put sparklers all around it!! so sweet of them! was quite touched. first time got people do such things for me leh. hahaha.. but i reached a little too late. when i reach, most of the sparklers already finish burning le. lol. but they went to buy more and re-lit the heart! tried to take some photos, but too dark, not very successful. but it's ok. the image will be in my heart! and then they made me spin round and round, then follow some arrows, like looking for treasure like that. still need to dig to find the "treasure". and it turns out that it's a present jiajun and bingwen bought for me!! i was really pretty surprised that the two little ones bought a present for me. thanks jiajun! thanks bingwen!

i felt so loved by them. and i'm so happy at the things they did for me. but really, what will truly warm my heart is to see them grow in the Lord, to love Him with all their mind, all their soul, all their heart. i begin to understand how parents feel. though we can do things to make them happy on special occasions, it's really the things in our daily lives that makes them truly happy. by listening to them, obeying them, cos what they ask of us is what they think is best for us. and i think to grow in favour and stature in our Lord Jesus Christ is the best thing for them, my cell members, and everyone around me.

oh and yesterday i went to 复活堂 to help minister to the people there. i was very nervous. very very nervous. i sms-ed huihui, sunmei, jasmyn, janet jie and jiayi, asking for them to pray for me. and their words and prayers really made me feel so so so so so much better. they sent me verses to encourage me, and i felt so loved by them. love casts out all fear, and through their love for me, i really felt that there was nothing to fear anymore. thanks sisters. thanks for your prayers and encouragement. and thank You, Lord, for sending such angels to encourage me in times of need. Glory be Your name, Jesus!

back from church camp!

i'm back in sg!! church camp was... tiring. haha.. didn't have time for me to relax at all. need to take photos, practice for worship, blah blah. but the games are good! second night, i was too tired to join in the games for the youths. really too tired le. though i know it was very fun, but i know i was too tired to enjoy the games.

time to rest is really important. i think i need some time to rest. when i say rest, i mean resting in the Lord. only by resting in the Lord can we truly get the rest, the peace, the joy of it. only through our Lord can we have true rest, and be re-energized to continue to do what we set out to do. i've been to busy, that i've neglected my own quiet time with God. i'm praying too little. though i still read the Bible everyday, i'm too tired to really learn anything or to hear anything from Him. i must spend more time with God. i can feel myself drained...

God, renew me!!

what's happening to me...?

ahh.. i duno what's happening to me. my temper seems to be getting a little intolerant these few weeks. sometimes during cell, and especially some of the younger ones, i really duno how to handle them. it can be pretty unnerving. the don't care attitude, the un-seriousness, it really gets on my nerves sometimes. it's been a few times that i felt like blowing up and giving them a good scolding, but i always managed to hold it back and recollect my emotions. but today i sort of blew up, a little. i realise i can't stand it when people start to push things away, try to get away from this and that, without any good reason, and without even wanting to give things a try. people just want to stay in their comfort zones. i understand it's only natural we feel that way, but i just can't stand it when people just WANT to stay in their comfort zone and NOT WANT to even try to get out of it, not even to think about leaving their comfort zone.

maybe the younger ones are just.. too young? maybe they haven't matured enough, so that's why they are like that? but i just cannot stand it. i can't help feeling angry at them for having such a nonchalant attitude, such a leave-me-alone-i-don't-want-to-do-anything attitude, such a don't-want-to-put-in-effort attitude. maybe i'm too occupied with my own set of thinking which i think is right, and i start to put my way of thinking on them, but when it fails, i get pretty upset. perhaps i'm not patient enough. maybe i'm not tolerant enough. or maybe, i've been too nice, that's why they have this kind of attitude, climbing all over my head. maybe i should be a little more strict. but today, i was wrong. i let my emotions go over me, even for a few seconds.

a few weeks ago i had a dream. in the dream, i totally flared up. totally blew my top. i caused a boy to cry. everyone was so shocked at what i did. even i myself, after realising what i did, was unable to comprehend how i came to do such a thing. and then i was scared into waking up from my dream, which felt so real. i cried very bitterly in my dream, and when i woke up, it felt as if it was real, so real. i was so afraid it will happen. i prayed for God to help me, not to ever let my emotions rule over my head and do something i will regret. today i felt a little of that, of my emotions getting over me, though only for a few seconds. anger is such a scary emotion.

God, I pray that You'll help me, help me to be able to control my emotions, and not let it overcome me. Please take lordship of my feelings, and cast away all the negative emotions. Anger, jealousy, fear, insecure, loneliness, hatred, sadness, take them all away. Fill me with Your joy, Your peace, Your loving kindness. Holy Spirit, empower me, stand by me and watch over me. Let not me do anything that will dishonour Your name. In Jesus' victorious and glorious name I pray. Amen!

my results are out!

my results for the past semester is out!! i got A for intro to java programming!!! woots! my first A!! previously only get 3 A-, and is all in year 1 sem 1. lol. got B+ for ERP, which i'm very happy also! the paper was very hard, and i didn't have enough time to correct my mistakes. but ab214 got B only. tot i could get a B+. oh well.. nvm.. i'm so happy i got an A. wahahahah.. and my GPA is up by about .1!! that makes the average GPA about 3.61. hmm.. should be no problem getting second lower class honours... Praise the Lord!! oh oh, and the psychology module, i passed! so happy also la. wahahhaa..

well, today quite sad that didn't go cell. gotta serve the country u see.. i think i've come to be too attached to my cell. not going cell feels so weird. i keep thinking what they are doing. this is not very healthy. one day the cell will multiply, and i'll need to learn to face that, if not i'll be so so so sad when that happens.

very fast next week is church camp liao. after church camp, must get down to serious planning for youth camp. ahh.. busy busy busy...