..my battle stance..

Thoughts on world seen from my eyes. Travel: in 1999, we had family trip to Taiwan. the 1st and only time 4 of us go for overseas tour together. Moved to Singapore at the end of 1999. After 12 years, seems like I will revisit Taiwan again. A fitting closure to this chapter, I guess. Gadgets: Finally got my ipad2!!! :D they are no longer just something for you to see and and hear. They can now 'see' and 'hear' you. Beware! Thou shalt not use ipad2 in toilet. Football: Feel sorry for Mancini. He got fantastic players but no respect at Man City. Arsenal lost 8-2 to Man Utd last month. But still optimistic! Gold & Silver: Simple. Buy it not so that you can sell it on high price. Only because you believe it preserves your wealth through good and bad times. Just so that I remember ^^

The book I am reading, 'What the Dog Saw', has a lot of interesting stories to learn from. For example, one of the articles was inspired by this statement: It is not 'natural' for women to menstruate every 28 days, or every month if you will. Ok.. let me first clarify this. I am not, and have never been interested in such topic. I only found the article to be interesting. Just in case anyone doubt my gender conviction ^__^ According to some research, women in the past, or those currently living in relatively primitive tribal environment in Africa, would normally have significantly longer period for their menstruation. It's the food we are eating (especially those KFC and McDs), and the environment we are living in, that expedite women's puberty age and shorten the menstrual period. I thought it was peculiar because in Indonesian, we even call menstruation 'datang bulan', a reference to monthly nature of the event. But apparently, the monthly occurrence i...

Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach; good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest. Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose. - Proverbs 18 Whenever someone says he or she is expert in NLP (Neuro Language Programming), or someone is speaking from 'Law of Attraction' books like 'the Secret', I would instantly be alarmed. While I agree with positive thinking and power of words, I tend to disagree with those teaching that seems to put man's words above God's sovereign will. Having said that, I must admit that I found it somewhat inspiring listening to a lady who gave 4 hours talk to us yesterday. She, of course, was believer of 'Law of Attraction' and all sort of new age teachings. But I realised a lot of her words made sense. Well.. a Christian who is absorbed in pessimistic thought and negative words is somewhat worse than a new age guy who live in principle of abundance. I thought.. Darn!! How c...

I hope this doesn't come across as pathetic. Well.. this weekend I got a pretty simple hope. I said 'hope' but it was more like 'prayer'. -__- I prayed that the climax of my weekend was not the Arsenal game last night (which we won, thankfully). I could have torn my shirt and covered myself in ashes if we lost again. Yeah.. I blogged about how pumped I was for September. But somehow I find myself in need of inspiration now. So to have Arsenal game as conclusion to my weekend would be.. just.. sad. But God.. How we love it when these two words appear on Bible. But God.. He just loves to give us that sweet little surprise. We invited our friend who is getting married soon for a small bachelor night. I expect some 'deep' talk but nothing too 'pleasant'. Well I can't explain the reason why in this blog. I wish we have that funny drug used in the movie Hangover, you see. But of course, we don't. Anyway.. as we talked, one of my friends pointed out...

kalo bahasa org2 skarang.. 'sesuatu banget' dahh. I know we shouldn't want to be somebody else. But COME ON... how can you not be inspired by him?? And that voice.. I WANT!! -__-

This song was sang at JPCC when we attended their Sunday Nite Service. I didn't straight away connect with the song. But my.. what a simple, deep worship song. Totally blessed! from my heart to the heaven, Jesus be the center. It's all about You. Yes it's all about You. Sidney's version

Somehow your words stuck in my mind. 'Life is supposed to be made simple'. I knew it all along. Or so I thought. But really.. I didn't think much of it, until you said it. The profoundness of truth is not so much in the statement. It is very much in the revelation. Well.. between a 20 yrs old and a 29 yrs old me (yeah I stop growing old at 29), I sure have learned, unlearned and relearned a lot. And I am sure I will still learn, unlearn, and relearn for the rest of my life. But at least I am sure this will remain the truth: Life is supposed to be made simple. now and then.. I will try to jot down simple principles that would make a whole lot of difference in our lives. So at least I can look back one day, when things are getting tough and life seems complicated. Look back and give myself a pat, telling myself; 'Life is supposed to be made simple'.

It matters HOW you are going to FINISH. Are you going to finish STRONG? The challenges in our lives are there to STRENGTHEN our CONVICTION. They are NOT there to run us over.

I just read Merry Riana's blog. You can find it HERE Well.. honestly the cow and horse part did not really click with me but I kind of think that the terms are catchy. Hence this blog title. But I do relate with her point about us always wanting to be in the elite 20% percentile, but not doing anything that separate ourselves from the common 80% percentile. I am not so concerned with being in 80% group in terms of my asset. True.. would love to own private jet, castle bla bla bla. But if that does not happen, life can still happen. But what about life as a whole? If we always listen to advise from those in 80% percentile, we will inevitably follow their path, living the 'common life'. Which is no disaster by the way. It's simply the matter of what we really want. We have a friend. She is the most open book, the most simple and easy going woman I know. And that is a compliment if you understand guys ;) She asked in one of our CG, "Can I ask God for a smooth life?...

As we walk closer to 2012, I feel that the shaking that Haggai 2 is talking about, is getting more and more real. Our stage of life does not matter. Our age, race, and family background does not matter. It applies to all of us. Everything that is shakeable will be shaken. Every worldly possession that you and I rely on will be shaken. So that the unshakeable within us will remain. It sounds abstract. But you'll see that it's unmistakably real. Rely on Christ and Christ alone. This is not time to be afraid. For the righteousness shall live by faith. But this is time to be wise. For His people perish because of lack of knowledge. And above all I pray that our love does not turn cold. We may have hundreds of reason to be bitter and angry. But let's surrender all unto Him. And may His love keep us together. Only by His Love.

The book has been very interesting so far. For example: The writer spoke about how today's church focus so much about teaching how to discover our Destiny, which primarily has to do with our career calling, with a caveat on Fortune. Our true destiny, he argues, is actually to become conformed to the image of Jesus. And here's another interesting point: Most pulpit ministries are unable to meet the real needs of Christian businessmen because most of them do not understand the difference between priestly income and business income. the pastor's income is priestly in that God commands His people to provide a reasonable living for those in fulltime pulpit ministry whereas the business/working man's income, is earned by the sweat of his brow. The businessman is battling it out for market share in the midst of a cursed financial system that he is trying desperately to understand. He does not need to hear about how to give more offerings to the church programs, but how to impl...

Interesting observation on illuminati influence on K-Pop: FOLLOW THIS LINK And things can either be amazingly coincidental or timely. Just when I was thinking about Korean entertainment industry for the last 2 days.

Four women are included in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:2-17). Bathsheba is the fourth of these women. It took something special to be included in the genealogy. And apparently, Bathsheba is indeed.. special. Bathsheba, as the story suggest, means: woman who bathe. Well.. Not really. It means 'daughter of oath' according to some interpretation. Though I said before that Abigail was my favorite among King David's wives, surely Bathsheba was the most 'dangerous' one. Bathsheba was - the beautiful grand-daughter of Ahitophel, shrewd military and political counselor of David. Ahitophel would later help Absalom in his rebel against David, presumably as a revenge for what David did to Uriah. - the daughter of Eliam, a member of the elite warrior group called The Thirty. - the wife of Uriah (means: Yahweh is my Light), who was also one of David's mighty men and a high-ranking professional soldier. David wasn't simply messing with an 'unknown beautiful youn...

This is devastating. Now I can sort of understand how Elijah only wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep for days without having the strength to do anything. may God give us the courage to overcome this. Rom 8:28.

Everyone has compassion. They will feel pity when they see poor people. But tender heart is different. It's inability to turn your back on someone in need. Most of us will have pity but not doing anything. But someone with tender heart is someone who will not be able to turn her back on the unfortunate without doing anything. *I am so ashamed*

When it comes to money, it matter not whether you are believer or not. it matter not whether you are a good person or not. When it comes to money, there is only two types of person. the one that loves money. and the one that does not. Which type are we?

Take few minutes to imagine the setting in which David sang this song. Powerful! =) Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left. Psalm 34 1 I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise. 2 I live and breathe God; if things aren't going well, hear this and be happy: 3 Join me in spreading the news; together let's get the word out. 4 God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fears. 5 Look at him; give him your warmest smile. Never hide your feelings from him. 6 When I was desperate, I called out, and God got me out of a tight spot. 7 God's angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray. 8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see— how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. 9 Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all his goodness. 10 Young lions on the prowl get hung...

Sometimes it's interesting to trace back everything that was being said and done with relation to certain thing or person. For example, we could probably search "Novena" on our email to list down every email that talk about our cellgroup, which my brother called Blessed Season 1, meeting at Novena. And then you search certain name, like "Alex Ilery"? and you would probably chuckle now and then while looking at the pieces of the past. Like comment on fb, or email reply, or tagged photo. You would come across some people who have deactivated their blog, or their fb account even. Maybe because it was too much of an emotional baggage to keep =) And I occasionally find myself asking, "Did this person ever said that?" Well.. the record said so. It's proof that we have really short memory. And unfortunately, our feeling is even less reliable. that very feeling that first elevated us, was the one that eventually fail us. It's scary...

Things are not particularly great at the moment. And nearby where I sit, there is this ugly cockroach which isn't inspirational really. Yeah, this the part when 'the ocean rises and thunder roars'. But inexplicably, I am pumped with optimism. Maybe because my soul is finding rest in Christ. I am full aware of the magnitude of the problem ahead. but I am glad that I never come close to knowing the limit of my God's power. I know how bad things could turn out, yet I praise my God for I could never measure His goodness to me. I also know that it's almost certain that I will fall and fail, yet.. this is my prayer: that I may have power, together with all of you, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:18-19) Hallelujah!!!