here are a few photos taken from my lousy phone camera! (hengwei has more, i'm still waiting! :))
Labels: fellowship
Posted by philotheos at 2:10 PM. 0 comments
hello folks, I've decided to put up the exam timetables of those in our group. So far I've only got some, so I'll keep updating this post. Let's keep them in prayer!
17/11 Cheng Hung - Material & Manufacturing, morning
Yanheng - Maths 2, 1-3pm
19/11 Yanheng - Digital Design, 9-11am
Cheng Hung - Maths 3, afternoon
Yanheng - Popular Culture 5-7pm
20/11 Yanheng - Operating System 1-3pm
21/11 Hengwei - Quality Control
Cheng Hung - Thermodynamics, morning
24/11 Cheng Hung - Essential Physics
(Mon) Joanna - Biodiversity, 1pm
Ying Qian - Business, Govt, Society
25/11 Yanheng - Software Engineering 9-11am
(Tues) Joanna - Statistics, 1pm
26/11 Hengwei - Materials and Energy
(Wed) Joanna - Organic Chem, 1pm
Ying Qian - Statistics
27/11 Ying Qian - Financial Accounting
(Thurs)
28/11 Hengwei - Engineers and Society
(Fri) Cheng Hung - Essential Maths, afternoon
29/11 Joanna - Popular Culture in Southeast Asia, 9am
(Sat)
1/12 Desmond - Accounting, 2pm (incidentally, Ziling's having e same papers as Desmond)
2/12 Desmond - Management, 2pm
4/12 Desmond - Econs, 930am
5/12 Desmond - Statistics, 930am
Jia you everyone!
Exam Verse :):)
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 Posted by philotheos at 11:58 AM. 0 comments
Well there's a short explanation to this. We came up with a few titles during sharing time, voted, and there was a tie between this title and "The End" (graciously offered by Heng Wei). Sad to say (for Heng Wei), I voted for "Dead and Alive" to break the tie. But why did I vote as such?
That's the longer explanation. Which is, I feel that it expresses well the tension and condition of our lives as Christians living in the real world. It is both an affirmation, and a challenge. [Take note: Below are my thoughts on how to interpret the verse and the passage following, but don't just take my word for it. Read up, pray, look at commentaries.]
The AFFIRMATION: If we have truly seen our own sinfulness, and we believe in the love of Christ who paid for our sins, and we are willing to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, then - we are well and truly dead to sin and alive to God. But what does this mean? This means that objectively speaking, God counts us as righteous. Not only is our sin paid for by Christ, we have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That is the reality. THE reality. But often we know it only in our heads, because in our daily lives, we still sin - we still get angry at the wrong things, we are still proud, conceited, selfish, lustful, jealous, greedy.
But don't miss the point here. What does Paul tell us? After 5 1/2 chapters of talking about the glorious gospel (if you've never read Romans once through, it's probably one of the best things you can do), he tells us to "consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (6:11) He tells us to bring our vision of ourselves in line with that of the reality of what Christ has accomplished in us. The point is very profound here: we have to live in the light of what Christ has accomplished objectively, in order to start living it out subjectively in our own lives. So, first, affirm to yourself your status before God. Justified and righteous, dead to sin.
The CHALLENGE: How are we going to live in the light of this fact? Paul goes on:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
This is obviously another very deep and profound passage, and I'll admit I haven't gotten hold of it entirely. But there are clues. Look at v. 12-13: these are instructions - let God reign in you, not sin. Choose God, not sin. This is an attitude and a decision. We can't control the desires presently occuring in us, but we can choose whether to give in to them, and we can choose overall, to let God reign in us. This choosing involves (cf John Piper) preferring. Don't fall prey to the lies of sin - the false promises of pleasure. Know that God is infinitely more valuable and precious. If we truly believed this, and chose God (and righteousness), then I think slowly but surely, our desires will follow. Perhaps not immediately, but with time.
And why will that be effective? v. 14 tells us - for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Remember the first point - we are justified and made righteous. That is a fact, not just a theory. So in our efforts to stop sinning and be righteous, we don't treat it as a way to be right with God. If we have accepted Christ, we already are. Don't rely on yourself, rely on Christ. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom 8:1) If we read on to chapter 7, Paul talks about how sin (the sinful nature), making use of the law, makes us sin more.
As I see it, we need to constantly remind ourselves that we have been made righteous. We don't try to be good so that God will like us a bit more. Remember that He showed His love to us while we were sinners. And it's Christ alone that bought us back. Rather, it is because of God's goodness that we want to follow Him. It is His kindness that leads us to repentance. It is because of His amazing grace and goodness to us - totally unworthy creatures - that we must respond in the kind of gratitude and faith that leads to obedience.
And as we, as a group, share our lives and try to follow Christ together, let's keep this in mind. What Christ has done for us, and how we should see one another as well. Let's encourage one another to work out what God has already worked in us - to live out the righteous life that He has already secured for us.
So then, dead to sin, alive to God. Here we go! :)
Labels: Christ, following Christ, God, gospel, sin
Posted by philotheos at 6:52 PM. 0 comments
hello boys and girls, we're up and running!
And what have we in store in this long-awaited group blog? Nice colours, for one, thanks to our very own technical support officer, Jia Xin! Thanks to her for the time and effort put into this wonderful design and coding in the midst of preparing her PW stuff..
Now to the uninitiatied - those who have not heard about what this blog is all about: well, here's what this is all about. for those in Pei-En's group (I is Pei En!), anyone of us can post our thoughts, reflections and musings on this blog. but what type of content to post? Let's take a look at the guidelines!
- Reflections on our Quiet Time/any spiritual readings (take a look at Wei En's blog for example. But don't copy and paste entire sermons here. If u want to recommend, just add a link.)
- Reflections on our sermon application
- Reflections on our book study (yet to begin)
- Prayer requests and thanksgiving, elaborations and updates on things you've listed down for prayer. E.g. more on how your exams went, whether someone who's sick is getting better, what difficulties you face in your projects, friendships and so on.
- Info on official group outings and post-outing thoughts. (note: what is an official group outing? Ans: something endorsed by the group leader and with a clear spiritual purpose.)
- Info on CYYAM events and post-event reflections.
- Encouragements to others and generally edifying (spiritually beneficial) stuff. (See Phil 4:8)
Now that's many different kinds of posts. So how to organise? We'll be putting LABELS for each post. For example, I have posted some prayer requests. At the bottom of the space for typing the post, there's a small box with the description "Labels for this post". So I'll type in the label: 'prayer'. Of course, one post can have more than 1 label, e.g. I can also put the label 'update' if that post includes some update. So essentially, people can access all posts relating to prayer by clicking on the relevant label on the right side of the blog. [NOTE: As of now, this function has not been added yet. But it will soon. Exciting times!]
It goes without saying (no, actually not, since I'm saying it) that we should not post private info about others on this blog. What counts as private info? You should know. But when in doubt, don't post it. Ask for permission first. Remember that this is a public blog. Ok?
But enough of these guidelines. We'll go into more detail as we go along. The main thing is, start posting, guys! Look at the tagboard - pp like Wei En and Cheng Hung have already started the ball rolling. So do it. Make this our blog. Make this blog a place of sharing, encouragement, fellowship. Make this our connection to one another during the week. Make this a place for spiritual refreshment.
EVERYONE
plays
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p a r t.
Labels: blog instructions
Posted by philotheos at 6:12 PM. 0 commentsgrasping for His daily grace.
a group of fellow sojourners,
gazing towards the eternal home.
a group of fellowshippers,
learning how to love one another.
a group of fellow disciples,
seeking to show others the treasure that is Christ.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression -it's by grace you have been saved." Ephesians 2:4-5
♪ Yan Heng
♪ Ailing
♪ Heng Wei
♪ Ying Qian
♪ Jonathan
♪ Jia Xin (Technical Support)
♪ Joanna
♪ Desmond
♪ Cheng Hung
★ Kai En
★ Mei Foong
★ Wai Yee
★ Wan Yee
★ Wei Hong
★ Wei En
★ Vinc
★ Xiao Ling
★ Zi Ling
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009
Please help us to publicize by pasting this code in your blog!(:
Layout & coding done by JIA XIN.