this is the most honest i can get....

hi the blog has been quite dead recently. Just wanna share something which happened back in singapore in Joel. Gordon and my church.

This is an excerpt from my senior pastor's blog:

Last weekend was indeed a miracle Easter weekend. There were more than 13,000 people at our services. I was especially excited with the Hokkien service which had a record attendance of more than 1,500.

Hundreds of people gave their lives to the Lord. We saw more healing of sicknesses than we ever did in the history of FCBC. A woman who had not walked for 15 years was healed and now walks with confidence. Another lady who had two lumps in her right hand was completely healed; the lumps disappeared when we prayed for her. More testimonies of healing are coming in as the week progresses. May all glory be ascribed to the Lord!

there is another account of healing at http://molmam.blogspot.com/ (the blog for joel/gordon and my network in church)

Do you have any area in your life you feel is without hope?
Do you need healing in any area of your life?
http://www.fcbc.org.sg/service_centre.asp

i know this sounds crazy but i am getting excited hearing about these testimonies here in London. Even right here there is a wave that is sweeping through. Many of my friends gave their lives to Jesus, starting to come to church, starting to even talk with me about the bible etc for no good reason. Even the elderly whom i volunteer/befriend with who is an atheist because of her past bad experiences with religon because her parents were muslim but abused her and ate pork, started to listen when i shared with her about this personal God and her heart is softening towards forgiving people!

I mean when i hold conversations with my friends about God, its not like 'just pray and believe lor' because there is so much about Jesus Christ that speaks of history and facts. And it infiltratres through many areas of our lives, even science! for example the leader of the human genome project is a believer(at the very height of intelligent rational thinking does not see a conflict between belief and logic)http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/index.html

if you watch 300 the movie, the camp(feminine :)) character Xerxes (ruler of persian empire) is in the bible!

Do you know that the account of St Matthew, Luke John of Jesus Christ in the bible is considered by secular historians to be more accurate than most historical texts e.g. Caesar's Gallic wars and the history of Rome. because of the sheer no of manuscipts that are written and the short span of time between the time of writing and the actual events (2 ways historians gauage manuscipt reliability) - and these manuscipts are double confirmed when the dead sea scrolls were found by archeologists in the 20th century...(i saw them when i went to Israel.)

i think sometimes most of us confuse religon with God and get turned off. because religon is indeed quite divisive, for example look at the world today. many conflicts arise from bigotted, dogmatic and power hungry religious leaders trying to use religon to control the people. The church history is one of much bloodshed, conspiracy and political strivings. But this is to be expected. the human nature is like that, especially if people 'play religon'(go to church and carry out the duties and rituals but ignore the heart about having a relationship with God and obeying him/loving others etc..).

Christians around us could be hypocrites as well. they preach the moral high ground but do not do it themselves...but honestly the essence of salvation is simply crying out to God and saying i am screwed, hurting, dont have it all together and i need you God! If people around you have hurt you through being hypocritical, i want to say SORRY on their behalf because they are prob immature and are pressured by society (as many of us are to look good) ...Things are not supposed to be like that!

All of us have a dirty closet of things which we hide from the world...many people tell me i have it all together but i know that that is so not true because my life has many screwed up things and if not for God who promises hope and to mend the broken, i would have given up on many things long time ago. But the beauty of real Christian fellowship and what church is all about is people coming together to share and admit they do not have it all together and to support one another in prayer and love rather than going to church alone and pretending everything is working fine but inwardly feeling the weight of guilt and shame.

in essence you can be totally honest with one another, no matter what you have done because simply the God who is creator of heavens and earth is the God that says: There is nothing you can do to make me love you less.

This sounds like a damn long preaching session haha and some of you may get turned off. But its a passion of mine and as my friends this is the most honest i can get.

love
joseph