A Legacy to Fulfill

hey everyone :)

not sure who attended the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum with Vivian Balakrishnan last Friday?
but for me, it was really really insightful and thought -provoking. being able to listen to a minister who wasn't beating around the bush and leading us on a wild goose chase ( for once! :P) was very beneficial indeed?

among the popular topics of the forum were issues like immigration, the amount of foreigners in Singapore, threats of globalization, and what key advantages we already have as Singaporeans to face the upcoming challenges. and just sitting through the forum, i think God was speaking to many people, not just me. i tell you, it was like a marketplace transformation kind of forum?

something that caught my attention during the forum was about this "High-trust" society that we have built as a country. What this means essentially is the presence of honesty, transparency, integrity that helps us to formulate strong relationships with one another.

so let's say i want to trade something with you, i can take you at your word and believe that you would trade honestly with me. However if we had a society that was low on trust, then even if i bribed you, there would still be a lack of certainty that you would keep your word and trade with me.

what the minister was really trying to say was that the presence of a "high-trust" society in Singapore is not only deeply entrenched, but that this is an asset that will help us overcome any future obstacles, especially with the recession that is only going to get worse in the next few quarters.

and i felt God asking me, "WHO, will be the BEST people to continue this legacy of a high-trust society? WHO is most capable of living it out?" the answer can only be found in us Christians, that hopefully during our daily lives, in the way we conduct ourselves etc, we can portray a very ethical and principled lifestyle that will encourage the people around us.

what surprised me after that was when the minister talked about how young Singaporeans nowadays lose sight of their purpose in life, that when we enter university, many of us join law/banking cause that's where the MONEY is. and we forget that it is really through the hard sciences and arts that we can find progress. He gave this whole speech about how money does not equate happiness and how look at life thinking about how much money we are going to earn, we will bound to be very unsatisfied with life in the end.He went on to say that if you're an ENGINEER and you may think that you're a NERD, but YOU ARE NOT. You're cool and that there are 24 ubercool engineers at Google headquarters doing Singapore proud at this very moment. * totally could have been an altar call moment for people to repent of their love for money. HAHA! Throughout his forum, he raised many many issues, but i think that if we look deeper, and if we try to understand where he is coming from, i think he really is talking about a TRANSFORMATION that should take place.

so whatever it is that we are studying right now, whether it is the sciences, the arts, law, business, engineering etc etc? i pray that God will give each of us the spirit of excellence?
exams may be coming, but with God's help i'm quite sure that we will be able to find JOY in learning? and i say LEARNING because that's more fun than STUDYING/MUGGING :)

so i end off my long email (i'm so sorry!) with this verse?

"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward. And that the master you are serving is Christ. "
Colossians 3:23-24

God has a special/ unique calling for ALL of us. have a blessed week ahead.

love in christ: charmaine
(edited and posted by Jelvin)

State of the University Address: Continuity and Transformation

Here is something that our current President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan highlighted in the recent State of the University Address. Just looking at the title amazed me: Continuity and Transformation! What this essentially means is that in NUS, Prof Tan said that we need to continue do what what works, while at the same time work towards transformation of NUS.

I believe that it is not simply coincidental the terminology and the heartbeat of our church is similar, that is we are too re-visiting and doing once again what worked, while at the same time working towards transforming community. God has directed the heart of our "king" and aligned it with what He is planning to do here in Singapore, for "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases" (Proverbs 21:1).

This is a quote from an article on the University Address: http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/headlines/1008/soua_10oct08.html

The University, said Prof Tan, is at a pivotal point in time.

“Ask yourself what you want your University to be. What is your vision for the future for NUS in our quest to be amongst the great universities of the world. And then, be one of the people who will help make that future happen.”

To be or not to be?

These two weeks have been hectic. Well... then again I may be trying hard to justify why this post which is on LAST Monday's prayer at University Hall is only up now. But at least it's up. :) As Sharon mentioned, both of us met up again at University Hall last Monday to pray. But someone was late due to various reasons. Ahem... (Read Sharon's post for more details). So I had no choice but to pray first. By myself. 

Again, God is good. He directed me to walk around University Hall and to re-look at the various revelations that were shared during the inaugural NUS Prayer run/drive 2008. It was important that I took sometime to look around, since during that time, I only arrived at University Hall after most of you all have already did so, and so I didn't get a chance to look around much. In short, I was late (I guess we're even now Sharon). God spoke again on many issues and revealed a small picture of what He wants to do in NUS, and also about the heartbeat of the leadership in NUS. We'll be sharing more on this when we get back together in er... 3 weeks time?

However, while God is good, it still does not change the fact that things are really hectic for most of us right now. We swamped with multiple deadlines, presentations to prepare for, term papers to write, and readings piled so high that we can use them as "stools" while we're writing our term papers. We simply feel that we do not have enough time for everything that we need to do. 

This is why God is not asking us simply for more and more of our time. He knows we don't have much to spare. He is asking for more of us instead. In this period, He is asking us to consciously bless the people around us, for blessing is an intentional act of loving the people around us. For to love your neighbor is to be a blessing to him/her. And to love them as yourself is to love Him.

So the question we have to answer in the end is this: Are we willing to be a blessing to our community in a time like this?

To be or not to be? That IS the question.

Never Tire of Doing What Is Right

Yo! Brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm so encourage by your sharing and what you all are doing there at the walls/gates. Last Monday, I went back to University Hall to pray and the Lord never fail to show me and lineng lots of insight of NUS-7 protraits, 7 symbols, 7goals, etc. We are so amazed and excited to know God's heart for the Nations, and we are looking forward to share with you all when we all get back to meet on 3 November. However, all the above would not be possible if I didnt press on. I was so happy that on Monday I can off work early and planned to be at NUS early to walk the land, but a short distance trip ended up to be long journey and inconvenient one for me! I took bus 96 from clementi bus interchange and it got so crowded when it reached the 3rd bus stand. I couldnt get down the bus at the desired bus stop that nearer to U-Hall, so I ended up back at clementi bus interchange. I then run to catch another bus 96 and this time I alighted before central library eventhough the bus wasnt as crowded as the previous one. I walked very fast up and down the road to U-Hall, the Lord placed a song in my heart and I sang as a prayer...Lord as we pray that your kingdom be here we believe we believe it is now...just like a mighty army marching into battleground....20mins later I reached U-Hall, a bit tired and catching up with my breathe. The Lord uses the experience to teach me few things: Doing His Work is never convenient and there is a price to pay (paid double the price of the bus fare, go the extra mile and round to reach my destination, learn to press on to clear every obstacles that block my way no matter what? If you can still remember, I shared that sometime the greatest opposition we face at rebuilding (Neh 4) can be ourselves but not satan? In my case, I have to make a delibrate choice to persereve and determine to reach my destination knowing very clear of my call and purpose. So NUS warriors, be strong and courageous and do not loose heart for what is good in this journey of rebuilding the wall. Dont allow busyness to entangle you and cause you to forget of your call/destiny. B-busy, U-under, S-satan, Y-yoke (our enemy) "It was for Freedom that Christ had set us Free, no longer to be subject to the yoke of slavery..."



2Thess3:1-5

Finally, brothers/sisters too, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance.

Imitating Christ's Humility

Thought i was going to be the first one to blog when i checked just now, but someone beat me to it...haha..

just want to share my experience when i first heard pastor's call to love our neighbours. To me, my neighbours would be my fellow physics mates in nus. Being a small cohort (~60+), i am rather close to many of them. To love my neighbours would seem to be an easy task initially, but the Lord reminded me of a personal hindrance which might have been a stumbling block to truly love these friends of mine.

As nus students, we would all know this system called bell curve which is used to determine our grades for exams, which literally means that our dear fellow mates who attend the same lectures with us become our 'competitors'. Being a small cohort, this sense of competition would potentially be greater, although it is not evident among us most of the time. At least for physics there's no group projects or presentations to make, which i've heard from other fac that it can get pretty ugly at times.

i guess what the Lord wanted to highlight to me was that sometimes, i would subconsciously compare myself with others in terms of school work and tests and if i'm going to have that baggage in my mind, i could never be able to truly love with that unconditional love of Christ..and the verse that came was from Philippians 2:3,4

3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

these verses spoke to me, that truly humility is my key to loving my neighbours and i hope this might speak to some of you out there. Its the humility of Christ, who made Himself nothing but the role of a servant and became obedient to even death on the Cross to save us. Whats more of us that we are called to imitate the humility of Christ

Do seek the Lord during this season to reveal any personal hindrances from our call to love our neighbours and i pray that all of us will be much blessed even as we bless our place and fellowship with our neighbours

A lil' prompting to bless

Seems like no one is blogging, I'll start the ball rolling with a short post :)

It hasn't been easy to always remember to say a prayer and bless the people whenever I step into class as it has been such a routine to just flow in and out of class all the time. Much conscious effort needs to be put in and I guess I'm getting along better as the days pass by!

Remember the friend I shared about who was ill? Have been holding onto this extra copy of the "Signs of Faithfulness" CD for a few years since it was produced by our church back then, and was just prompted to bless her with it last week! I must say I've totally forgotten about that CD since it has been stored somewhere for ages, but it just came to mind suddenly one night! She received it with gladness and excitement :) Haven't got to ask her how she finds the songs, but lets pray that they'll minister to her as she listens to it!

I wonder how everyone is doing..? :)

-lijuan