Hungering for God

An article from TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman

God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Psalms 53:2 - Acts 21:11-12

"I really don't understand why I should come to this. How can I really benefit?" was his response. At that moment, I realized that I was wasting my time with this man on whom I had invested much throughout his Christian walk. He was often like a roller coaster-up one minute, down the next.

"You simply aren't hungry enough," I commented to my friend.

Whenever someone must always rationalize and examine whether the things of God are beneficial to them, you know that they are not hungry enough for God.

I recall one time when I was in a difficult place. I received an audiotape from a man who gave me some insights into my problem. I was hungry enough to book a flight to a city 500 miles away just to meet him and find out more. My finances were at a very low point, so it took some real faith to do this. That meeting turned out to be a divine appointment and became a turning point in my life.

God is looking for men and women who hunger to know Him. When we believe that we know all we need to know, we are in a dangerous place. God has placed men and women in the Body of Christ who have had different experiences and gifts that can be helpful in our own spiritual pilgrimages. It requires humility of heart to realize that we can learn from others. We can easily rationalize our business pressures and time commitments to discount such opportunities.

Revival Seminar 2008!

Presenting..... Revival Seminar 2008! in 3 weeks' time... on 19 - 21 December.

Finally, after 3 years we are organising Revival Seminar again! So spread the word. Come and join us for this retreat that will help us to literally experience spiritual revival and a renewed love for God once again. View www.youthariseministry.com/RS2008 for more details!

In the meantime, if you want to contact someone, you could email us at rs2008@youthariseministry.com! or RSVP on Facebook HERE>



This was the old flyer (initial):

And this is the new flyer, designed by Gavin! Cool eh!

Tears of Joy

Here's a lil sharing from me!

For me, I tear when I am both happy and sad. When I laugh too much, I end up crying. The same goes when my heart is "moved" say, during a prayer or song... i feel like crying. It's an ironical reaction and makes me wonder if I've got my emotions all wrong! However, the truth is that I really haven't cried in a long while. So what does that mean? Perhaps... in my case, it's something like for a long while, I haven't had that "moving" experience? so you could say, i've been feeling...kinda numb. You could also say, I'm just being "normal", having no particular high or low feeling.

Well, I could also be the type that buries everything inside and have a big downpour once in a long long while. Coz you can't go crying every week right? Whatever the case, tears are refreshing. When you cry, you become vulnerable, but you are also "washed"... letting go of all the stress, burden, fear,... and just letting it out.

So, finally, today... I "tear-ed". Why? because I received an email tonight, from my host family in Melbourne during World Youth Day in July this year.

And so for the first time, it hit me... that it is God who brought me to Melbourne-Sydney, though at that time, I did not FEEL anything. Throughout the whole pilgrimage, I was pretty much a "sight-seeing" tourist.. haha.. So if there's anything I brought back, it was the love I received from this wonderful family of Kevin & Trish McGlade, my hosts during our stay at Melbourne (before we went over to Sydney).

Through Trish (the mother of 3), I saw the importance and strength of a praying mother. She is a strong catholic in her family, and I believe, is the one who constantly pushes and guides her sons to try to serve or do more stuff at church. They are still finding it tough though! And Kevin McGlade, is a gentle father who is humurous as well as knowledgeable. He always speaks in a calm manner, and has lovely kind and smiling eyes.

Some of Trish's words in her email to me:

"Hello Sam, I've just been going through olps website. It was really wonderful to see you there among the orchestra. It's great that, as a group, you are offering your love of music back to God as a thank you for His gift."

"I have been thinking of you quite often and wondering how your new job is going...."

Of course, Trish wrote much more. But just this email and the effort of keeping in touch even after WYD, made me realise, that I was there simply to experience this little love - coz it's only when we received something, that we learnt how to reciprocate and give back.

Thinking back, I remember the last night after the farewell dinner in the McGlade's house, we presented our hosts - the McGlades - with souvenirs from Singapore... and before we knew it, Trish was tear-ing because she was so touched! Then all of us (4 girls!) cannot tahan already and all began to cry too... of course, Kevin was trying to maintain his composure!






Anyways, through that 5 days staying in the McGlade's house, it was a wonderful time of Grace and Love. I now remember it fondly and am glad I can claim to now have a friend and lovely motherly mentor & family, all the way in Melbourne.



God's purposes reach far beyond what we can even fathom. He has a purpose for each and everyone of us.

Let's thank God for the people whom we have met, and the people whom we will meet and touch tomorrow.

May God Bless You!

Luv
Sam

Birthday Greeting to our 2 Lovely Ladies...

Dearest Elaine & Natalie!

THis is an early greeting for both of you! Wishing u both a Happy Birthday! Btw... Nat's is on 8th, and Elaine's is on 11th! ;)

Both of you have been great sisters in christ to us at YAM... and we thank you for your inspiration, involvement and support to us in YAM so far!

So... How many years have we known you? It's been so long!

May God continue to bless and guide you and lead you into new paths and new truths! May He continue to teach and empower you. Continue to seek Him and do His work... you are a great servant of the Lord.

Thank you and we love you! BE Loved!

And not to forget, we also wish SHAUN a belated Birthday! His B-day was on 4th November! Shaun is an amazing keyboardist who joined us for a while some time ago. Very glad that he is still keeping in touch with us!

Shaun, I pray that God will continue to guide you as well, towards fulfilling the potential you have inside, and that you may continue to seek Him, and worship the Lord with everything you've got! Stay cool dude and continue to love god, the church, and us at YAM ahahah!

God Bless,
YAM

Rosary Making!

At yesterday's session, we looked to our Blessed Mother as the greatest model of how we all should approach our relationship with God.

... Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. - Luke 1:38

Sury asked the question -- are we too able to say that? despite knowing what will come from this "YES" to God? this act of obedience and love for God?

Mary allowed herself to be God's greatest instrument - to bring our lord Jesus to this world. So we pray for her intercession. And everytime we pray to Jesus, Mary is always praying with us too... coz she loves it when people love her Son!

Fun with the Rosary! View photos at
View at Webshots or View at Facebook

God's Transcendence

What is God like?
Fred Smith, Sr.
Article taken from BuildingChurchLeaders.com

My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the Lord. "And my
ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

Many of us are tempted to respond, "Like us." We so can overemphasize the God who is so involved with out lives that he begins to look like us, and in so ding, we diminish his complete holiness and transcendence. A friend said to me, "All our sins can be classified under three categories: deifying of man, humanizing of God, and minimizing of sin." This insight has been very helpful for me in evaluating my concepts of God.

We humanize God when we think he is motivated in the same ways humans are. For example, we subconsciously feel more secure if we believe God needs us rather than believe that he only loves us. This thinking implies that God uses us to satisfy his selfish need. Since we strive to satisfy our needs and value those people and things that fulfill our needs, we reason that God appreciates and rewards our satisfying his needs.

But God has no needs because God is sovereign. God loves us; he doesn't need us. Our security is based totally on his love and not on our satisfying his need of us.

Christian leaders can harbor the arrogant notion that God needs them around. Some will say, "I will live as long as God needs me." Yet many great saints died young or during their prime years of ministry. Service is no more a guarantee of long life than good works are an assurance of prosperity.

Another danger is that when we try to obligate God by service, we can become very possessive of our efforts and resent sharing the recognition with others. We are anxious to receive the credit for our service, as if God valued the work rather than the motive. We become selfish in our service, not wanting to share the work for fear God will not recognize our sacrificial works of piety.

A great spiritual release came to me after five years of strict Calvinist teaching on God's sovereignty. I came to the spiritual conviction that God does not need me. He loves me. He gives me the opportunity to perform for my maturity in Christ. It is for my good, not his good.

—Fred Smith Sr.

Reflection

Do I spend some time regularly—in worship, in private devotions—simply extolling the majesty and awesome otherness of the Almighty? How might this be a corrective to the subtle trap of "domesticating" God?

Prayer

Read Psalm 145: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm145.htm


"Aslan is not a tame lion."
—C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe


Article taken from BuildingChurchLeaders.com

Friends, Mass, and Prayer...

Today I had dinner with Vanessa. We were scheduled to play tennis. But it seems all my efforts at exercise this week includin last have been thwarted by the rain.

Anyway, it was really fun to chit chat and catch up. We talked about work, good things, bad things, ministry, people, life, habits, personality, etc etc. One night is really wonderful to catch up.

So anyway, the whole point of this post is that I wanted to say - God gives us friends. We treasure our friends by being a friend to them. We don't need anything in return. We are simply, a listening ear (to all their troubles)... a helping hand (to their needs).... a lovely friend (who loves them).

In addition, a friend desires for your good, your growth, your development. True friends will help each other to grow, find the right path, and godly friends will help you to find God.

I thank God for all the friends I have in YAM. They helped me last Sunday a lot! They persuaded me with ALL THEIR MIGHT... even whipping out the Catechism of the Catholic Church to find me the passage about how missing Mass on Sunday is a sin.

Well, don't see that I am already in ministry for long. That doesn't count for even one bit. We can serve but we need to grow personally in our spiritual maturity and understanding between us and God, and between God and the traditions of the Catholic Church. For me, it is no different. It takes time.

And so my issue now is about going for Mass. I have never been brought up to feel that missing Mass is a sin. Even deliberate missing of Mass (e.g. to attend a wedding, a gathering, some hobby). Moreover, my parents do miss Mass too. So I have a very rebellious thought towards God, saying, If they can do it, I can do it too! (of course this is in the negative sense!)

But a sin is a sin. And sometimes, God has to bring us to realise and accept it. So... 2 things happened this week.

Sunday, I was supposed to go blading in the evening (thus miss mass, since I didn't make it for morning Mass). BUT --- it rained! So blading was cancelled. In the end, after persuasion from Marlene, Gav, Sury, Eugene, and Jane..... I went for Mass, and got my mum to go along too! (She was originally going to miss coz Dad was out at golf and I had other plans).

Today, I was feeling a bit desperate this morning because I was worried about what a colleague thought of me. So I prayed. Sometimes you don't pray consciously at the workplace.... or we just tend to pray anyway out of habit. But today, I prayed, intentionally, and asked God,.. oh God, make this a good day and bless my workplace. I then said the simple "Our Father". And today, though long (worked till 7pm) was a good day. Amen!

So I was convicted - to go for Mass, and to Pray.

And friends, godly friends, have played a key role in these realisations.

I thank God for everyone around me.

God Bless,
Sam