The Lord provides at ALL times

So I have yet to do my part in offering since the end of the past co-op term. Budget been a bit tight. Family needing some, school took 2 armfuls, rent, food, travelling between home and the loo. I was honestly wondering where I can get the money to put into offering. But God literally provides :D

In the past week when I was still wondering how I should save up, God blessed me with some here and there.

1) My mom's cousin randomly gave me red pocket money

2) Insurance finally gave in and gave me back the money I had to claim and complain for 3 times

3) I potentially have someone subletting my room just for the month of August so the rent I already paid does not go to waste (I'm out of here by July 23rd *brap brap*)

It's kind of funny if you think about it because God is providing so I can give back to Him LOL. But hey, He provided when I didn't know what to do.

Thanks be to God forever!

Be watchful at all times

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" - Matthew 26: 41

Basically, if you're not watchful you're screwed.

A few weeks ago at Sunday School, we were talking about watchfulness and why we really need to know our weaknesses. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." - 1 Peter 5: 8-9'

I was not watchful about a week ago and fell right for it. The interesting thing was that it didn't end after I fell for it. What happen was I kept ruminating on what I did. I think the feelings and thoughts were much worse than what I actually did (not that the action was insignificant). I felt so horrible that whole day I wanted to cover my face... so shameful, full of guilt... I was absolutely disgusted at myself... couldn't even stand looking at myself in the mirror. There were also a lot of nasty words thrown at me =(

But thank God for His grace and mercy! He stopped me from thinking about these things but to give thanks and praise Him for the ultimate sacrifice on the cross and to repent immediately. He also reminded me of our walk together and how far we've gone together. I completely forgot how much I am worth to Him who gives life! Those nasty words faded as I start to remember that only His words matters.

And then, the Sunday School material made sense. There are 3 enemies: The Devil (quick attack/ manipulation), the World (subtle manipulation), and the Self (sinful nature/ manipulation from within). There were subtle build up from time to time. I think I felt a bit lonely, tired, lazy that day and the Devil came in for the kill... he was waiting. The nasty judgments I throw at myself kept me from seeing God's glory. If you really think about how all that worked together, it's actually quite frightening.

Friends, know your weaknesses well, know what you should/ should not do, and know where you should not go. Be on your guard at all times! Stand firm in faith! The enemy is a sneaky one and you have a weak body. So be watchful at all times!

Jobmine D:

I've never been anxious during the application process before. It seems like this app process is a lot more troublesome... and it's my last one. There really isn't anything that I want to apply to lol. Usually there's at least 2 or 3 jobs that I'm really interested in and the rest I would be at least ok with. This time I'm "mehh" about all of them :S

There are a lot less jobs and the location to interest level just doesn't match this time. I have 1 hour left before jobmine close. I'm still thinking whether to apply to a job in Fergus (??? lol who lives here ???), a job in Ottawa that rejected me 3 times already...jerks (LOL), and one that's borderline Mississauga (this means I have to commute from Scarbaria everyday ==")

There are some really good jobs outside of jobmine, but they don't pay D: WHY?! I'm such a good employee, they really should pay me big bucks at all times LOL!

Fruit of the Spirit vs. The Spirit

So... is it really the fruits that you want or is it The Spirit that you want?

We need to stop wanting just the fruit and start wanting the Spirit!

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature... But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control... Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit..."

Galatians 5:16-25

A gentle reminder :)

I felt like crap today and things just seemed like they haven't moved. But I knew the one thing I need was to hear the word of the Lord. So I quickly searched on Youtube and for some reason, I wanted to hear specifically from Francis Chan. No idea why. Like he's good, but I don't usually listen to his sermons. Anyways, I found one called "The Holy Spirit and Our Effort", based on 2 Peter 1:5-11. Have a listen if you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deuca-kXtnI

The part where he got to "Steadfastness" (endurance + perseverance), he said let's say Jesus walked in right now and let you choose either plan A or B to go into 2010 (sermon was done near end of 2009). Plan A is where everything will go the way you want (ie. good marriage, well paid job, no illness...) but you will not be closer to Jesus... things just stay the same between you and Jesus. Plan B is to go into the new year with steadfastness, it will be hard, but you will be so much closer to Jesus and will come out with strength you've never had.

On hearing this, I felt so much better. Not crappy anymore. Quite in awe of God and filled with thankfulness. The reason for this is because near the end of 2009 (I guess around the same time as when that sermon was preached), I remember telling someone that I want to be closer with Jesus when the new year comes. And 2010 SUCKED HARD! LoL! But, I know with confidence that I have the strength I've never had before and is definitely so much closer to Him :)

Sometimes when I feel like crap, I need a little reminder here and there :P But the ways God gently reminds you is just so uniquely insane :D Crazy how He did it this time!

THANK-YOU JESUS!

Yet another funfilled weekend =D

Annual Food and Drink Fest

This started Friday and I went with my friends on Friday. I've been looking forward to this for a whole month just because I found some coupons (lol! So Asian) and because there will be food sampling, wine/beer tasting, and random free stuff. I've never done thigns like this before so it was very exciting, I felt like I went around the world.

Admission was $15, but I had the coupons that takes $3 off. The sampling tickets were $10/ 12 tickets. And each sample required between 1-5 tickets... depending on how fancy it was supposed to be.

The most delicious item I tried was this French soup (forgot it's name... too busy eating). It had scallops, shrimps, and yes... lobster claws in it :) and is made from 2 different soup base put together when served.

The most disappointing was the Spicy Thai Chicken by McMaster food service. The portion was bigger than most samples but it was just plain spicy and I couldn't taste anything as I was in pain. I should have known better since the caterer was from a school.

Art Crawl

This happens every second Friday of the month and starts at 8pm. The art district of Hamilton (James St. North) showcase new series and themed art works in all their mini galleries. It was similar to the Nuit Blanche, but way smaller in scale. It was fun running around looking at stuff with hippies bwahaha.

There was a series on "Hands" drawn with charcoal. Most of them were blown up drawings of hands of old people so you can really see the veins, wrinkles, and the linings. It sounds really unattractive, but my favourite was one called "Mother". It was an old pair of gentle hands with lots of lining. And it put a smile to my face because it reminded me of all the hard works mothers have to put in to help everyone out in the family.... hence the lining and wrinkles.

On a lighter note, and as many of you may agree, sometimes "art" is just ridiculous. So one of the most ridiculous thing my friends and I overheard was "So what you're saying is that this painting is in constant conversation with this piece of clay." My friend couldn't stand it so he ran outside laughing LOL. So we ended up making fun of some $1200 "art" the rest of the night. We also saw a "trendy guy" with bunny ears on.

Settlers of Catan

I owned. Twice.

Church

I'll make another post on what I learned at the service.

Birthday Party

It was my friend PW's birthday weekend. It was actually his birthday week, thank goodness I only saw him 3/7 days of the week hahaa, I love how he shamelessly promotes his birthday hahaha. I actually love it. So a bunch of us were hanging out. Played some games (Deal, Catan, Bang etc.) It was fun. But I think the best part was the spontaneous worship on the porch. The weather was gorgeous and it was just a perfect setting :) And some people were quietly reading the Word. We ended the night by going to East Side Mario's for their half price appetizers :P

It was a very fun weekend. Haven't had such fun and eventful weekend in a while.

Yea... It was good :)

It was never in our powers

So I walked in on a man watching a Christian show last week and I asked if he was Christian. He said that he's trying to be and wants to get back to it but it has been very difficult for him to follow everything because he always stumbles (ie. forgiving someone 77 times). I wanted to talk to him then, but I think he wanted to watch the show. And thinking that I have the week after to talk to him, it wouldn't matter if I didn't take time to sit down and talk to him more about it.

I was pretty excited to go back to work the on Monday, wanting to look for an opportunity to shed some light on him. Wanting to feel the excitement of sharing the gospel. Wanting to have another "god" story to tell my friends after I spoke with him.

I was bummed out when I found out that he left without notice over the weekend. That feeling sucked. It was short and instant, but it sucked because I knew that I only wanted to speak to him for selfish reasons. It wasn't for God. After that short moment passed, I remembered that it was never/ ever will be in our powers to control when God meets someone.

God is the only one who is and forever will be sovereign over all things.