NTU CSA Praise & Worship

A new page for CSA Praise and Worship. 2 years ago, I was called by Jesus just like in the picture display above. Now, I really praise God for calling me 2 years ago. He changed my life totally. It was only few hour, but the effect after it.... A life changing experience.

I just have 1 question for you. Do you want to live according to His plan? Do you have the longing and courage to answer His calling to you?

You may experience a life changing experience like I did, or even more!!! Because God has His plan only for you!!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

John 3 :16

Why do we have confession when you can just tell your sins to God?

16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

5When you realize your guilt in any of these, you shall confess the sin that you have committed. 6And you shall bring to the Lord, as your penalty for the sin that you have committed, a female from the flock, a sheep or a goat, as a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for your sin. (Leviticus 5:5-6)

5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 6Speak to the Israelites: When a man or a woman wrongs another, breaking faith with the Lord, that person incurs guilt 7and shall confess the sin that has been committed. The person shall make full restitution for the wrong, adding one-fifth to it, and giving it to the one who was wronged. (Num 5:5-7)

22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ (John 20:22-23)

10For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. (Rom 10:10)

This is some of the verse in the bible that stated clearly that we should confess our sin to one another, and of course to the church. The priest is a person who has the authority from God to forgive sin and also the representation of the church.
There is also an explanation taken from book Lord, Have Mercy written by Scott Hahn.

Sin is a transgression/disobedience/wrongdoing against almighty God. When we sin we reject the love of God. There are two big categories of sins: Original sins and Actual sins.
Original sin is hereditary but impersonal. It is contracted, not committed; and we contract original sin without personal consent/ permission. That is why God can remove original sin without personal consent, as He does with newborn babies on their baptism day.

The same thing cannot be said for actual sin. Actual sin can only be committed through informed consent, or we can say by some action or deed. And so it can only be removed through informed consent. That’s why we need confession.

How to make a good decision

This is one of my business module I take this semester, management decision tools. In business and in fact in anything that we do in this life require us to make decision. Whether it is routine or any urgent and important decision. The decisions we make everyday determine our life, where we will go, what we will do. Whether we realise it or not, our decision reflect about our self. It reflect about of mind, and the way we think and perceive. And everything about a person will start from his or her mind.

Most of the time when me decide upon some choices we consider several things, what is our benefit of taking this choice? Is there any consequences or disadvantage? I heard a very good reflection of our spiritual director, Fr Jivan about yesterday's reading taken from Mark 3:1-6. It is about Jesus decide to heal sick people on Sabbath day, and the Pharisees decide to plan a plot against Jesus. There are two different decisions we can see here, and the decisions are made from two different considerations.

First is about Jesus decision, He decide to heal the sick person. Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”He stretched it out and his hand was restored ( Mark 3:5). He heal him because of the truth that this person need Jesus healing, and how could He ignore him? But during Sabbath day people are not allowed to work, because they have to go to synagogue to pray. Basically this is one of the ten commandment to make the Sabbath day as holy, to worship God. So the consequences of Jesus healed the man is he was seen as breaking the law and the punishment is stoning to death. Did Jesus know about this? Of course and what He did is to keep following the truth, which is to heal the person.

Second is about the Pharisees, how did they react? Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent( Mark 3:4). On the other hand they made a different decision, but actually they know about the truth. They don't have the courage to answer, because they know the consequence. They are afraid loosing their position, status, and their life.

I asked my self, have I followed Jesus's way on making decision? Based on the truth or on the other hand, I think too much about my self and I am also afraid of the consequences?
What is the truth anyway? This is just my belief that the truth lies in our conscience, and mind. We know it like the pharisees, but the question is do we have courage to make a good decision based on the truth?

Try to ask your self, how do I make decision in my life?

St Stephen, The ripple of God's Plan

It is about the today's reading : Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59.

It is telling about the story of St Stephen. From the meditation of Word Among Us, it said that "... one remote consequence of Stephen’s death was the conversion of St. Paul. Was Paul converted solely because he saw how Stephen had died (Acts 8:1)? No. But it was one of many extraordinary events that Paul witnessed—all of which testified to the power of the gospel and helped prepare him for his encounter with Jesus. "

This sentences really amazed me, and inspire me so much. What happened to St Stephen had been told by Jesus Himself (Mt 10:17-22). God is really almighty, today's passage is one of it. The great plan of God, we as His creator can't really grasp his plan, but with faith and when we are in heaven, we will know how is our life in His plan. We have the free will, given by God's grace to choose anything in our life.

I want to ponder and discuss about the story of St Stephen. After reading the passage and the meditation from Word Among Us. I am thinking, although it is not said in the bible, but I think there are many people who were affected by the death of St Stephen. Many of them were touched by the great faith and love of St Stephen to God. One of the example, as I quoted above, the conversion of St Paul. It is not a direct cause and effect, because God's plan work differently from our plan or imagination.

I keep pondering, in my life, I might not have the opportunity like St Stephen to evangelize to spread the good news. But I believe that God still use me as subtle ripple on the pond that can continue to make another ripple. It might be in the form of my daily activity, the way I speak, interact with other people. Who knows, if today I can share the love of Jesus by greeting someone, or the small deeds that I do to help others. It might seems small thing to me, but it might be a big thing for others.

I may not know now how am I affecting others by sharing God's love and the good news that Jesus is born to save the world, but I believe that God is waiting to use me to be in His plan. He is very passionate and merciful to give me the 2nd chance. His great love want to help me, to enable me to do His plan. I just need to do one thing, it is to be in His love, to be in His presence, to stay close with Him everyday. And He will reveal many things to me. He is waiting and keep waiting for me.

Because He love the world so much, that He gives His only Son. He loves me and all of you.

God Bless You all, may the peace and joy that Christ bring in His birth be with you all!

First Posting

Hi all,
I want to dedicate this blog to share my insight, experience and knowledge. I want to use this facility of blogging to share about Christ, how I experience Him in my life, how He revealed His plan for me.

I pray that some of my sharing will be fruitful to anyone of you. Please correct me or just send anything if you would like to discuss anything with me.

I want to learn to put down into words about my deep thinking , my meditation of the words of God.

I am inspired by my brother, who have a great blog and has helped me through his blog, I thank God for giving him to the community.

Praise The Lord!!