LIFEBOOK 2009

LIFEBOOK 2009

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants, and eat less food that is manufactured
in plants
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy
5. Make time for prayer
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2008
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day ---- and while you walk, smile

Personality:

11. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your
energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do ; keep your limits
14. Don't take yourself so seriously ; no one else does
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the
past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the
curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last
a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:

25. Call your family often
26. Each day give something good to others
27. Forgive everyone for everything
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day
30. What other people think of you is none of your business
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in
touch.

Life:

32. Do the right things
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
34. GOD heals everything
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
37. The best is yet to come
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Last but not the least :

40. Do forward this to everyone you care about.

 

 

 

Daily Devotion (Exodus 22-24)

Exodus 23:21-32

"I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.

I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.

I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."

The promises stand true today as we are the spiritual seeds of Abraham. The Holy Spirit is the angel that leads and guide us, often we miss the mark and sin against God. Developing the discerning attitude is critical in our lives, applying the truth of equal yoke in business partnerships.

O Lord, my life is precious in your eyes and I often drive myself into dead-end street. The world has changed but you have not changed. I remove my veil today and stop being ignorant about your promises that are my unseen victories. The evil one will continue to invite me into its dark pits and the scheme is exposed today. Jesus Christ is my torch, my guide, my compass, my hope and my victories. Amen.

Daily Devition (1 Thessalonians 5:12-14)

"Respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone."

Self righteousness is a sin we do not aware in our daily life. It slowly develops an attitude to judge our brothers in serving ministry. I suppose Paul constantly received treatment he did not deserve.

The commands of encouraging and helping others in this season of famine are so important to exercise our faith and love.

Paul has demonstrated God's love for believers in Thessalon and is a role model for all of us. Brother David Ho is such brother among our midst and demonstrated God's love and care. Dear Lord, open my eyes to see the lost souls on the barren land and the depressed brothers who need encouragement today. Amen.

Post Valentine's Day Message to Spouse

Daily Devotion (Gen 38-40)

This is how your slave treated me!

Joseph was sold to Egypt to the potiphar and God promoted Joseph's hands in potiphar's house. Joseph took care of everything in potiphar's household.

Joseph grown with good looks and was chased by the wife of the potiphar. He refused to dishonor his master by sleeping with potiphar's and left his cloak behind. She made up a story to her husband and the response from the potiphar was "This is how your slave treated me." It reminds us Adam's complain to God about Eve.

Spirit of lust and condemnation are always two of the weapons satan use to corrupt our body and relationships. We derail fairly fast without daily doses of God's words in us.

Abba Father, thank you for your reminder today about my potential falls if I do not stay close to your words. Your grace is sufficient for me and your blessing is more than enough for me today. May your power and grace manifest in me outwardly today as I meet or talk with people. Amen.

MONEY NOT ENOUGH - talk by Rev Chia Kew San

Date: 17 Feb 09 Tue
Time: 7:15-9:15pm
Venue: CREST Christian Book Corner #05-58 Far East Plaza, Scotts Road

FREE ADMISSION - Register via e-mail giving us your 1.Name 2.church 3.contact no.

Why do some Christians struggle to earn a living or to make ends meet? Why do some Christians put in an honest, hard day's work and yet have difficulty earning enough money to meet their financial obligations?

What is the real problem? Does this not contradict the Bible's many promises of God's provisions when we struggle financially? Has not God promised in His Word that He would meet all our needs abundantly?

Hear from Rev Chia as he shares Biblical insight on this subject. He has written the book MONEY NOT ENOUGH in 2003 which has blessed many people.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rev Chia Kew San has been in the full time ministry since 1985. He served in two large churches Chapel of the Resurrection and Church of our Saviour before planting Woodlands Christian Centre. He is now the Senior Pastor of Emmanuel Christian Church http://www.ecc.sg/ which he planted in 1997.

Kew San completed his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from NUS in 1984 and his Master of Missiology from Fuller Theological Seminar in 1987. Trained by the Navigators in his undergraduate days, he's passionate about discipling and church planting.

He is married to Ann and they have a beautiful daughter, Faith.

Daily Devotion (Gen 30-31)

Heaven Blessing Requires Faith, Plan and Action

Jacob was sent to Leban with nothing. He gained wives and accumulated wealth from the seeds of Leban, who was a street smart man with a calculative heart. Leban knew God's presence was with Jacob and tried to keep him to serve his household.

In 14 years, God transformed Jacob from a mummy's boy into a capable cattle breeder. Jacob cheated his brother's birthrights and ended up serving a shrewd father in-law. With a small home-coming plan and dedicated execution, God blessed his hands and sent him back to home.

In real life, we often experience cunning and shrewd customers and bosses. A USA friend always believe "Good guys always lose". Without wisdom and careful observation, good guys indeed will serve for a dream of someone's and get little returns.

Jacob knew Leban's character and proposed a "disadvantaged" proposal to pay for his own wages - after 10 failed wage negotiations from the past. God's favor was with him this time round and Jacob left Leban with great wealth.

In Hebrew 11:6, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." The biggest challenge in our spiritual walk is the "seeking" part. The seeking process involves trials and errors, faith and determination will pay off finding the bull's eye getting the result that God has prepared.

Thank you Lord for your chosen mention today. In many ways we are no different from Jacob's manipulative heart today, teach and guide us today to develop the Christ-like character through our eyes, heart, mouth and hands. So we carry back the spiritual wealth to your kingdom. Amen.

Rick Warren

Rick Warren author ofthe Purpose Driven Life. He said the prayer during the inaugural ceremony of Barack Obama as President of U.S.

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: "People ask me, What is the purpose of life?" And I respond: "In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body - but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense..

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her - it has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.

That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK GOD.

Daily Devotion (Gen 25-26)

God's Plan

"Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."

God responded to Isaac's wife Rebekah about the jostles within her in her pregnancy. The promise was fulfilled with elements of favoritism, deceits, hatred, guilt, etc. Did God create us for His plays? Surely no, the "evil DNA" was part of our flash at the time Adam and Eve decided to ate the apple.

As God's salvation plan reveals through Jesus, His ultimate plan is to save us from the destruction of the world. Jesus blood renew us, so we no longer need to cheat anyone to receive favors. The question is how do we sit before Jesus feet like Mary, and know His plan for us..

Dear Lord, many times we serve the world in higher priority than listening to you. We need to hear your plan for us, like your reply to Rebekah. Help us to build up the discipline and be like Mary and less Martha. We praise your for the deep work that is beginning in us today. Amen

Daily Devition (Gen 19-21)

Faithfulness

God sent two angels to save Lot and his family. God demonstrated His love for Abraham's family.

Even Lot's daughters were influenced by the culture at the time and in great fear of extinction in a desolate area, God blessed the children delivered by both sisters from the result of incest with their father.

God preserved Abraham and Sarahs' marriage breakup by the king Abimelech. Again, Abraham was blessed by God with silver from the king for his lies.

Hagar was promised by God for the survival of their lives in the desert and Ishmael's powerful kingdom. Simply for her relation to Abraham!

Abraham was blessed so much that the visual impression of God's favors was too obvious, even the king Abimelech feared his future and had to make a treaty with him.

Without a shadow of doubt, God is faithful to His covenant, God is eager to bless us the same way today as we are the spiritual children of Abraham!

Lord Jesus, thank you for the words of wisdom and revelation of God's nature today. We confess the wisdom of the truth will break down the spirits within us that causing us to think we are hopeless and useless. As the spiritual offspring of Abraham, God is blessing my hands as I keeping His laws within my heart. Amen.

Daily Devotion (Gen 16-18)

Character & Commitment

At age 75, Abraham was promised by God about his future and nothing really happen in another 25 years. Gen 16:5 reveals the possible clue why Sarah was angry and pushing the blame to Abraham - regular signs (Abraham) and self-curse (Abraham & Sarah, see Gen 17:17 and 18:12).

The development of the story mirrors Adam and Eve's encounter - the wife suggested a proposal and the husband followed. Relationship builds upon trust and consistency (or discipline). Trust is established among God-Husband-Wife and constant hard work to ensure the foundation is strong.

Why Abraham? Gen 18:19 says "For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him." Abraham had demonstrated his righteous character God knew he will not weaver!

Dear Lord, thank you for the wisdom of your truth and instruction on what is important in our lives. Constantly reminds us the relationship building within my family and the importance having a godly character like Abraham. May our lives glorify your kingdom. Amen.

Daily Devotion (Gen 12-15)

Do You Make/Touch Up Stories At Work/Home?

"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." God promised Abraham in Gen 12:1-3.

There was a severe famine in the land and Abraham went to Egypt for a while. However fearing his life will be taken away, he said to his wife: "I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you." As expected, Pharaoh desired his wife and God intervened the marriage.

Abraham saw his future and yet committed a common mistakes we all frequently make - anticipate the unnecessary and commit sins. Do we anticipate good outcome by making up stories (not 100% lies) to gain favors? Thank God for the wisdom to remind us His grace and covenant are sufficient for any situation!!

Abba Father, Thank you for the wisdom hidden in the historical stories and your love for me today. Remind me constantly that Jesus has paid the price for me and I have been credited victories in advanced. Teach me Lord your wisdom to materialise the victories in my life! Amen.

Daily Devotion (Job 6-10)

Spiritual Resilience

Eliphaze, Bildad and Zophar came to comfort Job in the midst of difficulties and trials. They were shocked the state Job was in, offered no words in the first seven days.

Job was trying hard to figure out the cause of the sufferings while friends were lecturing on the consequences of sins.

The five chapters remind us the importance of our true character before God: Job did not curse God even when he was inflicted with many problems; Instead of encouragement Job's friends were trying to offer their "formula" to admit sin and exit the nightmare as if it always works.

We do not understand God's grand plan and Jesus forewarn us the trials and tribulations ahead of us. Only people with faith and godly character will stand before God. We need strong foundation of truth inside us and able to stand the trails in life, as well to offer the right dose of encouragement to others in sufferings.

Dear Lord, forgive us for the complains we leash out in the face of difficulties as Jesus already taught us the remedy in John 8:31-32 "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Help us to transform your daily manna/your words into our spiritual muscle that withstand the attack of the enemy and encourage the body of Christ when needed. Amen.