3rd day of freedom

sounds like the christmas song "12 days of christmas" huh? ;)

woke up late (hahah!) then bummed ard at home, in front of the laptop, in front of the xbox (my prrreecciioooousssssssssssssss! ;) before heading out for lunch with my parents. went to novena there, had lunch at the food court, where i realised all my food cravings (laksa, roti john, mushroom cheese prata, subway's italian bmt or subway melt, lawry's beef, beef noodles, wantan mee). then proceeded to shop haha..bought 2 shirts from addidas' warehouse store thingy then went to marina bought a pouch, LED torch (fwah very bright ah!) and insect repellant, insect bite lotion and lozenges.

still got the stuff that one of my section mates helped to buy for field camp, think i got most of the stuff i need heh. anyways turns out the evening was rainy =/ heh nice lah but i think i'll prob not like to be wet during field camp lorh..besides where i am, i doubt there's the CAT 1 siren (its like when there's lightning, siren would sound and this computerised voice would go "CAT 1, CAT 1" and if the weather gets better, another siren would sound and the same voice would say, "normal weather, normal weather". but i digress) yeah so i'll get wet and try to keep warm in my basha which hopefully won't collapse on me in the middle of a thunderstorm and hopefully won't have any holes so it leaks -_-

got to yf nice and dry in my gortex luck.bird (zzz!) jacket and the msg was really quite good :) so thank God that a) i'm still going for yf, b) i'm in church having fun and not outside having fun, c) pple seem to want to hear from me abt the stupid life inside haha..! anyway i digress again..but yeah the msg was from 2 peter 1:3-9, abt knowledge and temperance. the preacher was an audio msg of some pastor/preacher in sarah's church i think. methinks he's quite good heh but like the church there in us and in sg is like quite different (get to that later), started off by telling us the difference between believing and knowing.

he gave the example of that he believes that there's a man called arnold swarcehowyouspellhisname (although he can't believe that he's a governor..LOL!), he believes that that man is real, alive and a living person..BUT he (preacher) doesn't know him! he hasn't talked to arnold, hasn't rode in the same vehicle, hasn't shared a problem with him, doesn't know personal information abt arnold at all! so quite a good example, ya? another good example is taken from James 2:19 "Thou believest there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." which is true isn't it? we can believe but if we do not strive to know then our faith might be in vain!

see thats the problem with Christians and pple he says, we believe there's a God. Christians accept and believe in God, but we stop there and say that its enough to just believe in God. but NO! its not! see its not enough to believe in God alone, we must know God too! its like growing, you believe you will grow, but if you don't eat the right stuff and don't exercise and etc etc etc, then you just won't grow. just like a Christian's growth, its stunted and in worse cases, we backslide or shrink! cuz if we think we do know God and thus not need to know more, from 1 cor 8:2-3 (which actually talks abt food offered to idols but there's a lesson to be learnt) its says, "v2 and if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. v3 But if any man love God, the same is known of him." really makes sense cuz sometimes in army, we feel we know something when actually we don't and then jump to conclusions and thus get into trouble. and the same for the Christian! if one thinks he knows everything then actually there's so much more to learn and to know. (i think, you thought. you think, i thought. i confirm, you confine!)

so too know God, we must search or dig just like in Proverbs 2:1-9, but taking from v4 "If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures," he (preacher) liken it to when you search for gold/diamonds, you have to dig and have to know where to dig and that the gold/diamonds would be in a ugly state and then you have to purify it to see the real beauty/shine. in Hosea 6:1-3, he talks abt that when we leave our first love for God that we must return to Him and that He will "bind us up" (or heal our wounds), and that we "then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord:"

see also John 8:28-32, where Jesus preached, and in v30 "As he spake these words, many believed on him." and in v32 after Jesus had said that if they believe, they should carry on and follow him to be His disciples and that "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." do we want to chained to that iron ball of sin? or set free to live life anew? he ended off with Matthew 7:15-23, where at the judgement seat, many would say that they have believed in Jesus in v22 "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" then these "ravening wolves in sheep's clothing" the Lord will say, "I never knew thee: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." what a frightful/sad day that would be when you realise that you've just been professing that you knew God but deep down, its just head and not heart knowledge.

following which he talked abt temperance, which is basically self control. he brought up the issue of that when jails were built, they were 10 times the size of what they needed and yet 10 years down the road, the jails are full! and they have to build more and bigger ones! this is he says, is due to the lack of self-control! he raised up that he used to drink before he was saved, and it runs thru the family (the love of drink), but after he was saved, he chose not only NOT to drink but also to stay away from even a glass of wine at a meal, because it would cause him to lust for more. now thats self control! in short, you don't tempt yourself to sin. in Galatians 5:16-18 "v16 This i say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. v17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. v18 But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." the flesh/mind wants its cravings and if you are silly enough, you'll let yourself have it, eg. you're sick but you still go and eat junk food and not medicine.

well, when he was talking abt the temperance, i reflected upon my NS so far, and at a place where punctuations can be vulgarities and the songs we have to sing, the insults we have to put up with. sometimes, inside me i wanna lash out saying those things and i struggle within myself. i dunno how successful it has been but i've been able to curb vulgar langauge from my vocab cept for one or two (and hopefully, not more) occassions when i just let my guard down and just say it, only to regret what i said. its an everyday struggle just to say the right things and i guess i've only been able to do thru God. i pray for His guidance to keep me thru the rest of my journey.