Tag Archives: risen

Surprise surprise (Easter)

By Posted in Church, motivational, Uncategorized Tagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

God has risen! Yesterday at church my senior pastor raised one thing in his sermon to all of us which I like is that Easter is about surprises! Remember those women who carried all the spices with them and wanting to visit Jesus at His tomb? Firstly, to them it’s weird that the stone were strolled away! Secondly, they saw nothing inside! Thirdly, 2 angels appeared and spoke to them! Can you imagine how shock the women felt about all these abnormal and unexpected things they saw? God is risen! Recently I have been praying for quite a few weeks for one church sister whose old mother was ill and hospitalized. My church mate was extremely exhausted running between hospital and home. My church sister is a grandma herself so she is not very young or energetic thus she was feeling desperate and fearful also. I kept on praying for her all the time, and I told her to cast her burden to God. She was surprised by my encouragement and persistent prayer because we aren’t close at all, I have only seen her a few times when she usher with me as a team for the church. But she said she does not know why, she could feel like to open up to me which is very unusual for her. I assure her that I will continue to pray for her till things become better, and my sister friend has a hope that her mom would turn to God and accept Him as his Lord, but it’s tricky because she is a Buddhist. Just last Thursday, I saw my sister friend’s daughter-in-law and she grabbed me aside telling me that her mother-in-law urges her to speak to me: I was surprised as again, I am not close to this family, this girl told me her mother-in-law’s mother passed away…but before she left, she has accepted Christ as His Lord! WOW. I am speechless. It’s not a very exciting story here but I have prayed for this friend for several weeks and the feeling knowing the outcome is what we hope for, the feeling is beyond what I can describe here. Not that I don’t trust God, but grand-grandma accepting God eventually did surprise me!  I want to take this chance to say Easter indeed should be filled with surprises and you could actually bring that surprise to those around you.

Quote of the Day
Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to utter darkness and change it to deep gloom.
Jeremiah 13:16
I pray to God that I will seek Him and stay hopeful irregardless that the future might be gloomy and shakey, He will bring hope.

Postscript Quote 
Always mystify, mislead and surprise the enemy if possible.
Stonewall Jackson

crisis

By Posted in after thought, Christianity, faith, religion Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
It’s in last week’s Newsweek cover which says “Forget the Church. Follow Jesus.” written by British political commentator Andrew Sullivan. One paragraph which struck me I am quoting here “All of which is to say something so obvious it is almost taboo: Christianity itself is in crisis. It seems no accident to me that so many Christians now embrace materialist self-help rather than ascetic self-denial—or that most Catholics, even regular churchgoers, have tuned out the hierarchy in embarrassment or disgust. Given this crisis, it is no surprise that the fastest-growing segment of belief among the young is atheism, which has leapt in popularity in the new millennium. Nor is it a shock that so many have turned away from organized Christianity and toward “spirituality,” co-opting or adapting the practices of meditation or yoga, or wandering as lapsed Catholics in an inquisitive spiritual desert. The thirst for God is still there. How could it not be, when the profoundest human questions—Why does the universe exist rather than nothing? How did humanity come to be on this remote blue speck of a planet? What happens to us after death?—remain as pressing and mysterious as they’ve always been.” Click here to read full article. It’s quite true what this paragraph is describing about the current situation of many believers nowadays. Easter is about belief, trust and faith. Jesus’ disciples after going around with Him for so long before his death, after the crucifixion could not even believe He has risen from the dead and Thomas claimed he would not believe Jesus is alive till he put his fingers on his palm where the nails has broken Him. From generations to generations, we are all filled with unbelief and lack of trust in our hearts, when would we surrender our heart whole-heartedly to God?

Daily Quote
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible foryou.”
Matthew 17:20
I pray to God that we take Easter as the concrete fact about His promise to us as He has sacrificed His life and resurrect. 
Postscript Quote 
I find your lack of faith disturbing. 
Darth Vader, Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope