Heloo Everyone!

Hello U2!

Haha just dropping in a short post cos' i supposed this blog may be half dead and also just a little update from me.

My my, one semester here in the US has really just flown past so quickly,unbelievable. Classes have ended for me, just left exams this week, concluding which i'll be flying to Michigan to stay with a close teacher/friend of mine who is doing his PhD there. The last time we interacted...probably a year back, I was still a Catholic....lo and behold ive just updated him on my being renewed as a christian and he's pretty excited. Yeah and i am very interested in sharing with him and perhaps some bible study and discussions!

I guess exams for you all are out and you're just trying to do all those things taht you said you really wanted to do when mugging for exams heheh...And more importatntly preparing for youth camp and christmas and all that cheer and fun!

I apologise for not updating you guys more regularly heheh...in fact I should resolve to writing letters and posting it to one of you to read out the short note just before weekly cell...that way you can be prevented fromcompletely forgetting about me..making my re-integration into U2 and Harvester this coming June much easier haha!

Just want to thank God for placing me here actually, this was really a very good chance for me to start growing as a baby christian and slowly strengthen myself...and i do thank all of oyu for helping me along the way. Yep this christamas break i shall indeed resolve to writing some of these stuff down...dunt really like to blog such stuff down haha.

God bless, my dear friends in Christ
John

To The Ends Of The Earth - Hillsong

So let's be a part of that great harvest(Matthew 24:14)

Took it for granted

Today for my Arabic class i had to bring photos of family or friends..only then did i realise i didn't actually bring much photos physically over....except for.....the wonderful photo-plaque You sweet ones made for me before i left for the US!

Praise God haha! SO yeah i kinda introduced you guys to my arabic classmates in arabic..and they were kinda ooh-aahing over such a nice and sweet gift that my friends made for me haha. Only then was i reminded that this was really a very nice gift and sweet thought of you guys, maybe cos it was sitting on my desk everyday...slowly took it for granted haha.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, i thank you for the gift and for your prayers for me. May we always be reminded to thank God for all that is around us and all that we have in our lives, never to take anything for granted, be it our family, our clothes, our friends, our chance to geta degree, or even our tummies.

Here's an intersting link you guys might want to have a look at:

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
On a lonely stretch of highway just outside ofGroom, Texas (near Pampa) stands a 19 storytall cross that can be seen for miles from anydirection. The arm spans are 110 feet across.It is constructed of a welded steel frameworkcovered with steel sheeting.

http://home.swbell.net/rwpassmo/cross.htm

May we in our own spheres of influence be the solid cross to show others what Jesus' love does in our lives, and hence be the walking/living 'Fifth Gospel', amen.

My Will

yes,God's will in all that we as uni students desire to do..

I'm setting the stage for the things I love
And I'm now the man I once couldnt be
Nothing on earth could now ever move me
I now have the will and the strength a man needs

(chorus)
Its my will, and Im not moving
Cause if its your will, then nothing can shake me
Its my will, to bow and praise you
I now have the will to praise my God

Complexity haunts me for I am two men
Entrenched in a battle that Ill never win
My discipline fails me, my knowledge it fools me
But you are my shelter, all the strength that I need

(repeat chorus)

I'm learning to give up the rights to myself
The bits and the pieces I've gathered as wealth
Could never compare to the joy that you bring me
The peace that you show me is the strength that I need

(repeat chorus)

(bridge)
We've got to be children of peace
Don't you know we've got to be children of peace

(repeat chorus & bridge simultaneously 3x)

Its your will, its your will [4x]

Words

Words are powerful instruments for good or for ill. We can use words in destructive ways, or we can use words to build and encourage. This must be what Solomon had in mind when he said, "A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is!" (Prov. 15:23).

This must be one of my greatest weaknesses, and i was seriously a big (and successful) gossip-mongerer in the past. May the Lord give me the wisdom and determination to put off this old self of mine and put on the the new self int he armor of God. May my mouth be a sword that pierces through deceit instead of fuelling it.

Keep my tongue, Lord, bridled well,Words of truth, oh, may I tell;Take my heart, its wellspring deep,Cleanse and purify and keep. —Bosch

this hit me - something to reflect about :)

Changing Our Paradigm of Experience
TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman


Have you ever heard someone say, "God doesn't work that way? He would never do that." Well, there are times when God chooses to confound the foolish in order to change our paradigm of experience. Moses had never seen a bush that burned but did not burn up. It got his attention and it drew him to God.

When Jesus appeared on the water in the middle of the night during a storm, the disciples exclaimed, "It's a ghost!" They had never seen a man walk on water. This led to a great miracle--Peter walked on the water, too. When Jesus asked Peter to catch a fish and get the coin from its mouth to pay their taxes, you can imagine what Peter must have thought about those instructions. When Moses got to the Red Sea, he ran out of options. God had an unexpected solution to the Israelites' problem--He parted the Red Sea to demonstrate His power and allow the people of Israel to cross over to flee the Egyptian army.

Each of these new paradigms was a stepping-stone of an encounter with God so that the individual would experience God in a new way. God used these times to enforce the principle that His ways are not our ways. Whenever we try to predict that God will act in a certain way, He changes the paradigm to keep us from becoming our own little gods.

Have you ever been guilty of judging someone for an experience they've had that you've never had? Did you dismiss it as extreme or something not of God? God is in the business of changing our paradigm from no personal experiences to God-experiences. However, if you operate on a level of rigid logic, you may never have the privilege of having the God-experiences. Keep your heart free to experience new paradigms with God today.

Not a grasshopper

Hi guys! This iz my first post and i juz wanna say sorry for procrastinating :( Hahaha... anyway, I juz wanna thank the cell for making my Tuesdays so enjoyable. Honestly, I really look forward to cell as this group of brethen is so vibrant and loving. *Brothers thanx for Sister's day! I still remember it really fondly, esp Boon's cute black and white shirt, the wonderful food and the super sincere powerpoint slide*

Anyway, i juz wanna thank God for teaching my a lesson today. Well I have been suffering from 'stinky thinking' meaning that I have been entertaining negative thoughts with regards to my work, my friends and campus ministry. Well during cell lesson, I was reminded once again that this is largely due to me seeing many 'giants' instead of seeing a positive picture like Caleb did when he spied the land. Well guys, thanx for creating such a honest and loving community to share my woes. Though it's tough sometimes, I hope to see all of us persevere together and continue to shower each other with crazie acts of love :)

Remember, this 'bunch of sheep' ain't no grasshopppers! * nice logo for shirt eh* Hehe

I told my mum I'm a christian, not a catholic. Amen.

My dear U2,

Just wanna share sumthing wonderful with you guys. Today i was calling my house phone using skype and my mum picked it up. I decided i had to call my parents thru the phone to talk to ehm personally.

Although i had been 'born again' as a christian and been attending Harvester services almost since 8th July, i never really told my parents about my rejection of the Catholic church's beliefs and that i had been 'born again' by the Spirit to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

I had lotsa EXCUSES that i thought were legitimate reasons. I thought i should not shake them since i was leaving for US, that i wld only tell them when i returned and had time to explain mself clearly. I thought somehow the Spirit would soften their hardened hearts and make them amaenable to my explanations when i returned. But maybe i was just scared, maybe i was hiding behind the badge of filial piety. God has called us to even leave our fathers and mothers and family, if need be, to take up our cross and follow him, without even saying goodbye, for that is the kingdom of heaven.

When i called my mum i planned to just tell her i'm fine and hang up after maybe 10 mins...BUT somehow this time when she asked whether i was going to (catholic) church, i cldnt take it anymore. See i was provoked by this lack of trust, and in a catholic way i understand. Sunday service is like ur only obligation, and most of the time some kind of mortal pressure forces you to go for it instead of free will that God so sweetly blessed us with.

I'm not sure how or why but suddenly i told my mum i have stopped believeing the catholic church and rejected their non-bible-based beliefs. i told her in 20 mins my life-changing journey these past 3 months. i suddenly found myself trying to evangelise my mum, and mind you all these was in mandarin. I'm not sure how or why, but the Spirit gave me the power of speech, iwas actually debating critical christain fundamental beliefs with her in mandarin...when i usually slept thru chinese services in my catholic church. Terms like redemption, salvation, bloodprice ransom,no condemnation in christ, the fellacy of purgatory, infallibility of the pope just came out of my mouth in mandarin, i dunt even think i can remember how to say them in mandarin now as i type this.

My mum was a bit shaken, reacted defensively like any catholic would, but was quite open to it surprisingly. She was comforted at least i was reading the bible for myself and understanding the truth. all these 22 years she just thought i was busy. but no, if i knew God for who He really was all these years, i would never be too busy for God. I just wanna thank God for my mum's open-ness.

For the lack of time i shall end here and continue my story later on. Pray for me and my family my bruddas n sistas in Christ.Amen.

Remembrance of Sept 11

Dear friends,

let us also recall with grief how 6 years ago, a great act of madness by man had caused innumerous casualties, many families broken, friendships lost, even some to turn away from God and question his existence.

We pray that the Lord may send guidance and Wisdom upon man, that man will seek to learn from this catastrophe and learn to live with each other in peace instead of perpetuating such madness that will only result in mutual destruction everwhere.

We pray even for President G.W Bush & team, and the succeeding US presidential administrations, that they may be granted the wisdom to understand the true nature of such madness and perhaps stop the killing of so many other innoncents in their self-righteous War on Terrorism.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

SO sorry for my no-show!

Harlow there my beloved U2!

I'm so sorry i didn't turn up online for cell today despite the preparations....sheesh i had to settle some school admin stuff, which i didn't realise till very late...hence this very late notice and apology...boo

It kinda sux..after 3 weeks here the sch admin stuff still not fully settled yet..im also going for a tuberculosis skin test later..these people somehow still classify s'pore as a TB-prone area...lotsa education needs here man

I hope and i know you guys will still have fun at cell without me haha!

My testimonial: I'm just happy that the Lord did help Jeremy & I to soften the ground, by encouraging more people to go for sunday service, at least just to try it out (Taste & see that the Lord is good!), we didn't even have to encourage them much. SO yeah last sunday we were qte thankful that 3 seekers joined Jeremy, myself and Tingxu (wavering believer) for a party of 6 to our current favored church, Grace Church (International). Although it's non-denominational, it's probably the closest i can find to a Harvester service here haha, and i'm glad the majority of us prefer it to others in the area.

Initial Singaporean cell group

Jeremy and I are actually planning to seriously start our own singaporean cell group here, amazing that we individually prayed for it previously and it has now become almost a reality hallelujah! We're probably gonna start slow and build up a foundation through Old Testament bible study first. This is based on a system called the New Tribes Mission, where we both kinda agreed it's important to start from the right foundations of the Old Testament/covenant before we proceed to the 'sequel' of Jesus, redemtion and Revelations.

We really pray that the Lord will guide us through all these and i hope for your prayers in making this event a success, letting the Spirit convict the wavering believers and letting the Lord's love touch the hardened hearts of others. Amen.

Mugathon In SMU

Hey John,

this is to dispel any rumours that both of us dont contribute to the blog. We are currently undergoing a very intensive mugathon in SMU library. All the ads u saw about SMU being the Movers and Shakers..MAking a difference.. DOnt Believe it! We are muggers!!!!!

I miss u John. YM too(ya right..)

Chit.

Heeyeee!!!!

How's everything going on your side? We are rather busy but, ya... still surviving. And we love you! Keep the flame going...

Yuenmun

The Planter's seed

My dear cell group,

Just wanted to share with you quite a great change in my life. I attended an inter-varsity worship session last thursday, and since then a little more of God's destiny for me has been revealed.

The worship session was much alike to our Saturday Youth service, except that it was not as charismatic (being a non-denominational fellowship). However, it was the first 'proper' service that i had actually managed to attend since i landed. I had tried another before that, but it was kinda methodist and very conservative, not moving at all.

So yeah the service was quite refreshing for me, just enjoying God filling up my life once again, praise & worship was great (albeit awfully short), and the sermon was very powerful. In fact, the sermon stirred up sumthing very strong in me. Through deep and intensice prayer i felt God was really calling out to me to get up and do sumthing more for His kingdom.

The message i received was that the greatest form of worship transcended denomination, human strength, thrones, powers, authorities, even human limitations. The greatest form of worship lay simply in living out our lives fully as godly men and women, so that we may be a testimony to the world, of the Lord's love and grace. However, it did not simply stop there, for no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl. Our lives in emulation of Christ were to bring those around us to know God and to enjoy His agape love. It did not even necessitate active evangelization, for in our daily lives' sayings and doings, evangelism was already actively at work in the Spirit.

I felt so empowered with a sense of purpose, and just suddenly realised there were qte a few singaporeans around me who were seekers/doubters. And i must resolve to be the salt that encourages them to thirst for God. Amen.

Together with a christian brother i found in Jeremy (a full-time singaporean student here who has had experience leading inter-varsity cell grps), we hope to eventually bring those singaporeans around us to know God and to encourage these seekers/doubters to seek the ultimate answer, the alpha & the omega, the unchanging loving God.

Indeed i guess this revelation may shock you guys abit, and indeed i am lacking in experience and even my bible knowledge. I'm doubling up on my bible study, i implore you my brothers and sisters to pray for me, for God-given wisdom that i may find the best ways to befriend them and slowly expose them to God, for increasing fellowship with Jeremy (for whom we seem to be each other's god-sent).

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." This verse brings me alot of comfort and assurance, that though i'm a newly 'renewed' christian, that similarly i can still bring others to a mature and close walk with God. Hallelujah!

mooncakes motivation!

dear cell group,

i wanna share with u sth that i'm quite amazed at! recently i received a mail from a friend entitled "mooncakes". i thought 'wah, she also selling ar?' but actually she was asking me if our church is selling them again (she bought a box from me last year) and that she wants to buy. so i was very excited and sent her the forms. i just saw her reply, she ordered one box each from prima and goodwood and told me that she promoted to her aunts, so their orders might come along the way. another amazing thing is that she says her family wants to donate $50 in addition to the orders!

my jaw dropped. it was kinda unexpectedly as i have never approached her to donate any money or even asked her for the magazine donation booklet. though $50 seems small in the light of the amount we need to raise for the building, i believe it counts and it was a blessing God gave. with this though, i feel ashamed. ashamed that i have not been actively asking enough, that i have not even taken the mooncakes promotion with a sense of urgency to ask my friends and relatives. yet, God still blesses. how amazing!

so....just wanna spread this testimony and encouragement and motivation to you all! lets do this purposefully, knowing that all of it goes into building God's sanctuary :)

disclaimer: sorry i've posting so often...cant resist, and the rest, stop remaining silent readers!!!

God in our lives, larger than life!

My beloved U2!

Please, for the love of God, do watch this video
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

At the start this video may make little sense, ypu might even think it's a dance....but no it's a christian skit with very christian themes and values that speak to all of our hearts and lives.

Just be patient at the start...the themes explored are really brought to life thru this skit, so i dunt really have to spoil the show by telling you here.

Just watch it...it made even a man like me close to tears...

I was just thinking this skit can be replicated by some of us at Youth camp or youth service, that would really be great...i'm sure the themes would resonate especially strongly among the youth..maybe Kate can choreograph since that's her area of talent haha =) Kate you can even consider such a career path!

This Godtube seems interesting also...like a christian version of youtube...i guess the internet isn't intrinsically evil, it really just depends on how we use it, and if we use it to praise God, Amen.

i heart fondue fellowship!

hello peeps!

i hope we all had a great time of fondue fellowship at pam's house yesterday night. though it was really a late night out, i felt quite fulfilled when i laid on my bed last night..relationally and stomach-wise :) thank God and ariel and pam for such an imprompteu time together. i'm sure through that we realised that chit is not one-of-a-kind! we missed having john and kate around though! another such time soon... cheese fondue next round? (heheh, evil wink at ariel)

i have something exciting to share also (some smu peeps already know) - God is really answering our prayers and orchestrating something in our campus! i remember that in my 2 years at smu, i wasn't really meeting christians (i met some, but they drink and club) and i was really asking God, there must be more than this! so was really praying about this before i started school and im sure many others were praying for this too... so, as i told u all, in my 1st week of school, i met christians who went on mission trip in summer, taking theology degrees and another one who has a prayer group in smu too. on the monday that just passed, we smu peeps had our campus prayer group. after that, the guys left while i was in the room, killing time. 2 people knocked on the door and introduced themselves as campus crusade members... they were walking by when they were amazed by the sound of people praying and worshipping God.

it was really shockingly exciting! cos they are planning to gather all the christian groups in smu for a corporate dinner plus prayer for our campus and see something come out of it! indeed, no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind can know what God has in store... i really thank God for this! it got me even more excited for this semester...and i cant wait to see and be part of what God is gonna do! do pray along together with me...

i'm sure God wants to do the same, or even greater things in NUS and NYC as well! amen?
let's be vessels that God can use to change our community :)

20 minutes of togetherness

Harlow there U2!

Thankew & thank God so much for the 20 mins of webcam cell time given to me! I'm not sure why but i was cut off after 20 mins, prob due to low batt or bad connection, but all in His plan i guess!

In that precious 20 mins, ive been thankful to be able to share in Proverbs 29:18. Indeed when there is no divine vision, man shall perish and life may seem meaningless. These past few days i've been a little lost as i go through the 1st few days of school and am constantly juggling and worried about modules.

Perhaps the reason why i feel lost is because there is no divine vision, that i did not pray hard for it to actualise in my life. At the end of yesternite, i did pray hard that i can just lay it all down at the cross, to cast my burdens upon Him. Let the Lord work through the administartion here and give me the modules that will build me up for the Lord and prepare me for loving the world and doing His work in the future.

I really enjoyed that 1st song "Heaven on the inside of me". Very thankful that someone had posted it up on youtube, enabling me to listen and groove to it for some time even asfter i got disconnected and still being hopeful God will reconnect me haha.

I'm looking forward to hearing more from you guys and the next cell! Hopefully God will bless us more and remove the devil's obstacles next time!

In Jesus' name we pray

Contact your cell-mate John!

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

I just noticed my msn on the contact list has an error. It should be laoyingge@hotmail.com instead of johnhuang85@hotmail.com But i still love the cute contact list haha! =)

You could email me at firefox_john@yahoo.com.sg Thats my private email, for special people like U2!

And my cute address here is :

HUANG ZHIXIANG JOHN
COBB RESIDENCE HALL
110 COUNTRY CLUB RD, ROOM 366
CHAPEL HILL, NC 27514

No more reasons not to reach out to me! hahaha

Peace be with you,
John