Contentment

Someone asked me,” Don’t you feel that as a Christian, you cant gamble, smoke, fool around, drink etc, life’s still so limited or boring?”

Although I had an answer in mind, this question set me thinking for a bit. Not because I doubted my faith or myself, neither but rather, an important word came into my mind the next day. And it was Contentment. What is Contentment?

Many define satisfaction, joy, happiness and success with having as much pleasures in life where possible and not forgetting accumulating wealth as one integral part of it. Truly, at the end of the day, will your heart, soul, mind have that joy you yearned for if all these are bestowed on your life? No doubt that, money is needed and having more is good but to my realization, having more only helps reduces a person’s number of worries. One of my revelations of Adam smith’s “Unlimited Wants vs. Scarce Resource” was the motivating reason behind this theory is human’s insatiable nature.

My answer to the question earlier is, even without all these things in my life, I can still have a happy and enjoyable life. The difference in whether one has to achieve the so called level of happiness is defined in his/her level of contentment he/she has set. Oh yes, it is always easy to rebuff this ideology that one has low level of or no goals/dreams/contentment because I have not much of what I want in life. How true is that? I’ve seen great men and women making big in life and you see them, you imagine, are these people what they seem to be? I admire Ms Elim Chew, founder of 77th street, a great philanthropist with a humble nature, so willing to help and give to the next generation. Most may think: ah she’s rich, she got it all, of course she can do whatever she want, so far and so forth but how many knows about her and her humble beginnings?

When the word Contentment fell into my head, I came to realize that I take much joy with what I have, what I do, where I am, what have went through. It is not because I have low expectations or nothing much to look forward in life but rather, how I know to count my blessings in my own life. I know that amidst my problems and imperfections, I learnt to champion my situations. People may never know what you and I have gone through but at the end of the day, I can be contented with what I have; simply because I appreciate what the world deems it “simple pleasures” of life.

“Success is, waking up and cannot wait to fly out of the door every morning. Success is, making people feel. Success is, working with the people you love and connecting with the world. And Success is finding a way to bind people with no connections with a dream. Success is, joy, freedom, friendship. Lastly, Success is really Love”- you can give without loving but you can never love without giving.


Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
3 JOHN 2

Prosperity

"Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.’” - Haggai 2:19

finally, in the marketplace, for the marketplace, to penetrate the marketplace. Incredulously blown off was my mind. in split seconds, my vision became clear, my mind sober, extremely clear and when it all seem like a dream to many. applauses, tears of joy, whistles, exclamation was all let loose at expo hall 1 on 6th Mar'10. land found, building secured and in 12 months, Shouts of Joy and Celebration will come liken to the Year of Jubilee when the Israelites are being set free and every of their debts if owned are cancelled and a year where they celebrated; every 7 years whereby the number 7 signifies COMPLETE or PERFECT.

as we begin to arise and build, truly from this very day, god will bless and build our own houses. I yearn n desire the day when god come and ask me,"son ask, what shall I give to you?" (1kings 3:5)

so often we find outselves witholding and being self-centered, never able to discover the power effects of giving and thus shortchanging ourselves a huge milestone. and the power of giving brings out a generous spirit. Many people have huge amounts of wealth and savings because they believe the richer one becomes, the happier he/she will also become, unknowingly allowing themselves becoming slaves to mammon.

How wealthy a person is measured, truly (my 2cents) is how his/her prospers. We can gain the whole world but lose our soul. Coming to our end of our lifespan, will these accumulated riches/wealth/mammon, be carried into our "next life"? Give and it shall be given back, shaken together and running over. Allow our soul to prosper and we need to find our own ways to make it happen.

I await enthusiastically for 2011 because as i sow in tears, i shall surely reap in joy. 2011, i believe will be a year of building and consecration. i do not know what is going to happen but surely, from this very day, my path is surely clear. something in me awaits to explode and i await...

Inner spiritual Thirst and Hunger

Wow! what a great message preached last sat! thank god i din missed it :p

so often when we "accustomized" ourselves to the things and rituals of god that we start to lose that very first love when we had our very first love. no doubt that we're still steadfast in our service to the church and the people, fervently in our works and has slowly, lost that very reason in our works. Jesus reminded the fervent Ephesus church in Revelation that they were a powerful church but yet, He had this against them, that they have left their first love. (Rev 2:1)

i think the first words that came into my mind was "complacency" and "religiousity". these characteristics creeps on us over periods of time and probably no one is spared of them. even myself, am guilty of committing them. we think that as long as we're serving, doing the works, faithfully attend cg and service or doing certain things that pleases god and our salvation is guaranteed. the question is," how sure is sure?"

when the message was preached forth, everything came into my reminiscence my very first time encounter with god. it was unforgettable and still so vivid today. When i was in my secondary four, in february, when 3 of my classmates invited me to church. i never really had a problem going to church since my relatives always invited me to church but i was only there to fool around and play with my cousins and friends. when it was worship, everyone lifted their hands, i felt totally out of place. @,@" so i decided to lift my hands in unison and close my eyes. the very moment i did that, tears began to well up in my eyes and trickle down my cheeks uncontrollably. i could not explain the phenomenon and worse still, no matter how hard i tried to hold back, more tears flowed... and the rest is history.

the most beautiful part was is that 11 years later, here i am, standing boldy proclaiming His goodness and mercy. It was because of what He done, here i am today. as i looked back, a deliquent, an outcast, someone that parents had lost hopes of their child making in life, simply hoping he wont embark on a wrong route of life; a wasted piece of clay when all hopes seemed lost, a dropout and a hopeless. Coming from the pits of helplessness and hopelessness to a life of joy, gratitude, goals and finally dreams. "For a man without a dream is a lifeless being." pressing on the higher calling says apostle paul.

as i look back, what i have is gratitude and True Joy. whereby a sensation deep down that cant be explained. what i can do and give is my life as a tool to be used for His kingdom sake. "for i was lost, and you found me. i was weak and you made me strong. i was poor and you made me rich; you stripped it all for my sake."