Keep your heart tender....

"They refuse to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways." Judges 2:19b

Our life's experiences either make us or build us. It's really easy to intentionally n consciously harden our hearts especially as young people. Why? So that we will not be hurt by others..so that we can protect ourselves from heartache....so that we do not need to feel lonely anymore....so that we can just do whatever we feel like to numb the realities of life....Life for you at this transition n growth season....is really complicated..at least, this is how many of you feel....

The above verse speaks of the new generation of Israelites - who grew up not knowing God nor what God has done for Israel. They decide how they want to live and what they want to do with the ONE LIFE they have. As they carried out their own ways, they also fall out of God's ways which took them out of God's protection n covering. This then led to different attacks from the enemy. However, after God came to their rescue and crisis is over, they go back to their old ways...

Why is it so difficult for us to live a life of holiness and purity?

I believe that one of the answer is found in the above verse - because we refuse to give up our own ways and choose either consciously or unconsciously to remain stubborn. When we choose this path, what happens is there's a process of hardening of our heart that takes place. Some of us, out of desperation - choose to harden our hearts to the voices n situations around us deliberately so that we can fulfill our dreams. 

Friends, we may always plan and want a great future. But, if we allow our hearts to be harden in the process of it, you will somehow come to a realization one day that I may seem to have it all on the 'outside' but on the 'inside' I really am struggling. The hardening of our hearts take place bit by bit, sometimes in your world of busyness and the need for multitasking and major decisions making with such limited time, you won't even notice that your heart is becoming harden ----- unless, u take a kit kat, reflect on your life and allow the Holy Spirit to examine your heart and your ways. 

Choosing God's ways and plans do not make your life boring. Nor does it take your happiness away. God is not one who is waiting for an opportunity to take away what you love or enjoy. In fact, He wants you to enjoy your life with Him while still pursuing and living a holy lifestyle. It is possible for us to choose to keep our fragile, little but powerful heart tender before God all the time.

How? Refuse to remain stubborn and set on your own ways. Be open - open to God's voice and check out His plans for your life. After all, He has been around for such a long time..He sure knows what He's doing.

Choosing to keep our hearts tender before God everyday is one of the wisest choice we can ever make in life. He holds our yesterday, today and tomorrow. He only wants to give us the best cause He can see ahead of time. Will you be bold and courageous at this young age of yours to choose to take time to get to know Him?

Let's be a generation who grow up knowing our God and also remembering His acts. If your heart is tender before Him, your life will be full of excitement..just like what I've tasted and experience thus far =)

LIFE WITH GOD IS NEVER "SIEN" OR BORING. It's always filled with EXCITEMENT & SURPRISES!!

Testimony of a 19 year old

Anyone can love..but love is always an action word. It must be express and it must be shown. I'm really glad to be able to share with you a testimony of how a campus student and her group of friends decided to share the love of Jesus......may all of us be inspired and desire to show God's love to those around us in a practical manner. =)

Revolution- it’s a movement ... to make a change by putting God's love in action in schools, campuses and workplaces. It was introduced in Malacca few months back and Pastor Rachel challenged me to start Campus Revo in my university. I was pretty reluctant because I just could not catch the vision of this movement although back in hometown, the fire was spreading like a wildfire, especially in secondary schools which is known as Recess Revo.

There’s this desire in my heart to make a difference in uni because i believe that there’s a purpose God has placed me here. I do not want to walk out of uni after 4 years without making a change or impacting anyone at all. But, the thing is that i’m not sure if Campus Revo is the right thing to start with. So, i just left the challenge unmoved.

Then one day, a guy from CF in campus sent me a SMS asking if I’m interested to join him and few others to start Campus Revo in uni. At that moment, I was reminded that, if God has his plans for something, He will move with/ without you. The question was, do I want to take that step of faith into what God is about to do or to just sit and watch and be a spectator?

I said okay to him and then Campus Revo was started about 3 months ago with 4 members including myself. We meet up twice a week to share and to pray for the uni. We did a prayer walk around the campus on the third week and after 1 month, we had two more people joining us which one of them is Lydia. That brings us to a total of 6 people.

Just last two weeks, we had an international student from Botswana joining us as well. It was great to see how God bring together people who are passionate and desperate for a change.

Recently, in conjunction with the Muslim’s fasting month, we decided to bless all the security guards in campus with drinks for their ‘buka puasa’.This is to appreciate them and to thank them as well for performing their duty under the hot sun and making rounds around the campus to make sure that the campus is safe despite it being their fasting month.

We bought 160 boxes of drinks and we’re giving out to them on random days throughout the fasting month. We also wrote little thank you notes and put it together with every drink and give it to the guards. I was blessed to see the cheerful smile on their faces when they receive the drinks. Some even can’t stop saying thank you to us.

The bible says that let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. So, i just want to encourage all of you that, if you want to see change in your schools, campuses or workplaces, start a revolution of love in wherever you’re at and God will definitely move! =)

by Kathleen Loke

A Prayer

All Malaysians today are taking time to pray for you in conjunction with our 40 Days fast & prayer for our nation..Yes..you are our important and precious youth and we do care...that's why today's prayer is solely for you..

Dear Father,

Thank you for all the young people in Malaysia. I pray for your blessings to be upon them this day. I also pray that out of your glorious riches You may strengthen them with power through your Spirit in their inner most being, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. Let them be rooted and established in Your love and be filled to the measure of all Your fullness.

Protect them and keep them from harm. Preserve our younger generation. We nullify every works of the enemy over their lives. We speak blessings, protection and wisdom upon them. Help us walk their life's journey with them - to build and to empower them as they fulfill Your divine destiny upon their lives.

In Jesus name, Amen

Be blessed!!

Let's not be Contaminated!!

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" Matthew 5:8

Standing up for Jesus and walking in His ways during your time and generation is really a challenge isn't it? I've always been asking myself - how can the younger generation: the youths of today stay pure in their hearts but yet be wise and relevant in today's society? It's tough. The trends of today, the different pressures of today, the excitement and thrills that comes along can be very blinding to many of you. In fact, it's true also for many adults.

You know what?? No matter how exciting and enticing things seems to look on the surface - the truth is: they are just temporal. They can bring certain level of excitement and hype into your life, but they will not last long. Wouldn't it be a wiser choice to go for something that has eternal value? Something that last forever and will never end?

Scriptures says that only those who are pure in heart will be able to see God. Pursuing a relationship with God - your heavenly Father can be an exiting journey and adventure all by itself. The genuine love in which you can truly be your real self - whether in good or trying times, whether you are strong or weak, beautiful or ugly moments is such an awesome and thrilling experience.

God loves you and really wants you to be happy. Many of us think that if we totally commit our lives to God and follow His ways, then we will not be able to do this or that. Some of us even think that God, the Father enjoys seeing you deprive of things you love most or enjoy the most. LOL! God is not like that. He wants you to be happy and He wants you to enjoy genuine fun as well.

Can you imagine the thrill of having such a close relationship with God - the God who created the entire universe and you? The God who knows the future and wants the best for you? WOW! It always blows my mind off whenever I think of such an intimate relationship that I can have with this Almighty God. Walking my life journey with Him, having Him as the closest person in my life, sharing my jokes and excitement, sharing my pain and tears and etc..

All this is yours - and all you and I need to do is to ask God to help us to guard our hearts so that our heart will remain pure and not be contaminated by the things of the world - even though we are living in this world =) The only way to really have such an intimate and close relationship with God - even to the extend of seeing Him with our spiritual eyes is make possible only when our hearts are pure (not contaminated).

So, why don't you say a simple prayer to God right now - asking Him to help you guard your heart and keep it from being contaminated. Why not also ask God for a daily, special encounter that you can have with Him? A tangible encounter so that your love and faith will grow stronger as you take the initiative to bond with Him and He draws you to Himself?

It's possible for you to stay pure and not be contaminated for Jesus as you live your everyday life. There are many young people who are walking this same journey together all over the world - standing strong 1 day at a time to stay pure for Jesus and not be contaminated.

You can too..as you make a day by day decision and choice =)

Let's do this together - 1 day at a time!!!

You are Accepted!!

I was reading my bible this morning and I came across this verse:

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Genesis 4:7

All of us want to be accepted, especially as youths - true friendship and bonding with friends are the best seasons and memories of our lives. Therefore, we try our best to ensure that our peers really accept us - with that we sometimes force ourselves to like the things our friends like or do the things we don't really like but if we do them, they will like us even more. We don't like the feeling of being left out or being the odd one in the group so we compromise some of our values to fit in.

I have a good news for you - God accepts you for who you are because He is your Heavenly Father. He understands our fears of being alone, being different from some of our friends and also our struggles of wanting to be accepted among our peers..

But, really let us be reminded once again that being accepted in the eyes of God is really more crucial and important in our lives..the reality of life is this: many people will walk in and out of our lives at different seasons, only God will be there to accompany and walk through life's journey till the end.

Let's constantly remind ourselves - if we do what is right, we will surely be accepted. But, if we do what is not right (there are times when all of us fall, even me) - just remember that sin is knocking at the door of our hearts. We just need to find someone who's more mature and who loves us - tell them we are struggling so that they will help us to overcome sin that's knocking on our door. It's ok to be vulnerable in front of them. Why? Our recognition of our vulnerability will eventually make us stronger in that area if we allow someone to help us through it.

Young people, you are loved and appreciated..there are many of us adults who love you and are willing to walk life with you..

A Zero To A Hero

Who was King David before he was anointed as king? He was just an ordinary teenage shepherd boy, in charge of tending his father's flock. The youngest in the family, hardly being taken notice of, wasn't even called when Prophect Samuel came looking for the next king in his household - David was forgotten! Compared to all his older brothers, he's not the strongest, he's not the most handsome and he's not the tallest. The entire family viewd him only as a shepherd boy. (1 Sam 16:11-13)

But, what did God see? YES! God saw a "hero" while others saw a "zero" in David. Can you see a hero in yourself? Maybe some of you will say, "I don't feel like a hero. In fact, many times I feel like a zero. People around me sometimes see me as a zero too!"

Young people, let me tell you a fact - You are not a zero! You are a Hero! In fact, you are not the leaders or the heros of tomorrow. You are the leaders and heros of TODAY!

A hero doesn't becomes a hero overnight. When God saw David - what was he? He was just an ordinary shepherd boy. But, what did God see? He saw a King - A mighty King of Israel. However, before the shepherd boy becomes the mighty king in the eyes of the people, God had some work to do in David. Likewise, before you become a hero in the eyes of others, you need to go through a PROCESS of PREPARATION....

Let's take a look at some of the power ingredients needed in this process..
1. Love & Worship God

• As you read the book of Psalms, you will be able to look at how much David loved and worship God. As a young teenager, David learnt to please & win the heart of God, just by learning to love and worship God.
• His lessons of learning how to love & worship God took place while he was tending his father's flock. He would bring his harp along and starts playing and worshipping God while his sheeps were grazing the grass.
• Learning to love & worship God is something that all of us as teenagers can learn and do. Oh, let your heart be filled with adoration and love for Him!
• As you just simply love & worship God, you'll excite the heart of God, & God will start drawing you to Himself

2. Choose to be careful to live a blameless life

• As God draws you to Himself, you'll begin to like & love the things that are dear to God's heart. You'll then start choosing how you want to live your life.
• Start asking yourself - "If I live & make this decision, will God be happy?
• Somehow, you will start off in a journey of adventures, excitements & struggles as you try your best to choose to live a blameless life.
• This is a PROCESS. It requires you to be patient and resilience.
• You are not alone in this. There are many young people who are choosing to live a blamess life...So, precious young people - "GAMBATEH!!"

3. Guard your eyes, mind and heart

• A hero in the making is someone who understands that what he sees, what he thinks & what he feels must be wholesome & not be contaminated.
• Being a hero in these last days is tough. You need to be constantly alert!

4. Feed yourself with the TRUTH

• Desiring & living in the truth is vital..The Bible tells us that we'll know the truth and the truth will set us free!
• In order to live in the truth, we need to FEED ourselves with the truth.
• The first truth that we need to consistently feed ourself with - the truth of God's word.
• When you learn & diligently fill your hearts & minds with God's word & start learning to live them out, you'll then be able to differenciate what is the truth & what is deception.

Therefore, to all young people out there - Know that you are not a zero. But, you are a hero...And you are not a hero of tomorrow..you are heros and leaders of today! Stick to the process of preparation..Persevere on! Be resilient! You can make it! Let's 'gambateh' together!!