MORNING
18th December, the day I was anxiously anticipating, finally crept its way in!! Yay!! It was a day packed with activities from sunrise to sundown… they were all supposed to go to church 2gether for the first celebration (in dumc, they call it CELEBRATION sat & sun, not first service, second service, or watever… in fact I think it sounds nicer, eheh), then head for an early lunch before adjourning to the Taman Megah Disabled Centre… now since the Sunday celebrations clashes, dumc’s and grace’s, they suggested that I join them to dumc… cool!! It was my second time there… the first was, I think in 2002, for a healing rally… ooh, to me, that place was HUGE!! Imagine them having 4 celebrations, 2 on sats and 2 more on suns!!
Anyways, yesterday’s message was entitled MARY’S CMAS… the speaker, ps foo yung chean, first gave an example/illustration using a candy cane… cant rber how his story went exactly but there was once a candy maker who came up with this candy cane thingy, and this story had some meaningful explanation to it… “number one: if you look at that candy, it has the shape of the letter J… Now what does it represent? Why is it made in such a way? J wud obviously stand for Jesus, our Savior!! Number two: the J shaped candy also look like a staff, a shepherd’s staff that they used to draw their sheep back when they wander off too far… similarly, J represents the staff of Jesus that is used to draw back those of us who have gone off track from Him, or in the case of those pre believers, it is used to draw them into the kingdom of God and the knowledge of the saving power of Jesus Christ!! Number three: the candy is white in color, symbolizing the pureness of Jesus… then number four, seeing that it was kinda plain, the candy maker decided to add some color to it, therefore the red stripes, and of course it reminds us of the scars on the body of Jesus, the stripes that He suffered and our sins that He took upon Himself, juz so we cud be free from sin!! And lastly number five, the candy is HARD, representing Jesus Himself as our steadfast, rock-solid foundation!!
Ok, now into the sermon… that was juz an intro, haha… let’s look at 3 main characters, each with a different kind of heart: JOSEPH, MARY & THE INN KEEPER…
i) joseph with a HALF heart (matt 1:18-20)
he was in a state of confusion and a know-not-what-to-do situation when he found that mary, pledge to be married to him, had a son… he was afraid and confused all the same… but at this point, an angel of the Lord appeared to him telling him not to be afraid to take mary home to be his wife… though he was confused, he chose to obey what the Lord had said… with that, it also shows that he’d made a decision to surrender his half heart to the Lord, so that He cud make it whole again… [joseph was confused]
ii) mary with a WHOLE heart (luke 1:35-38)
when the angel of the Lord appeared to mary and told her that she was going to have a son, she answered, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as You have said.” She was obedient and submissive to the will of God [mary was willing]
iii) the inn keeper with an EMPTY heart (luke 2:1-7)
the time came when baby Jesus was to be born… but when they came to a village inn, the inn keeper rejected them saying he had no room for them… not knowing that it was the King who was to be born, he turned them away thinking that they weren’t any important people… and probably juz didn’t wanna lose a business to some ordinary-looking couple… but little did he know that he was missing out on the honor of having a King born in his inn [the inn keeper was reluctant]
in closing, ps foo threw us a challenge… to begin making room for Jesus, if we have not been doing so… he challenged us to begin to clear off any areas of our lives that are beginning to take the place of Jesus Himself!!
SO YOU WOULD COME
Before the world began, you were on His mind
And every tear you cry, is precious in His eyes
Because of His great love, He gave His only Son
Everything was done so you would come
** Come to the Father, though your gift is small
Broken hearts, broken lives
He will take them all
The power of the Word, the power of His Blood
Everything was done so you would come
Nothing you can do, could make Him love you more
And nothing that you’ve done would make Him close the door
Because of His great love, He gave His only Son
Everything was done so you would come
AFTERNOON
The visitation was fun!! An eye opener for me in many ways, I wud say… the taman megah handicapped & disabled children’s home was truly a place that brought back memories from my childhood… my heart melted with compassion when I look at them… they are all so different becoz of each of their own disabilities, but yet You have called each one of them by name, and they are indeed so precious in Your eyes… You love them all the same and were never different from anyone else…
Singing carols, playing games… Juz spending time with them… there were still some who couldn’t join us at the compound, but juz stayed indoors… so I decided to be with those who were unable to come out… entering the hall, I spotted this sweet-looking girl sitting all alone by herself on the stairs… as I was heading her way, I had to also be very careful not to run over a couple of them who were lying helplessly on the floor… soon, I realized that the girl was blind, so I reached out to touch her hand, but she begin to tense up, afraid I guess… but then with the help of her maid who explained that I was a “kakak” wanting to make friend with her, she begin to relax… taking my hand, she felt me all over… so as to make her more at ease with me, I started talking to her and having small chats with her… although I cudnt figure out what she was trying to say, at least she was talking… next thing I knew, she started singing… in tamil or hindi, I don’t know, but, wow, imagine that? She’s a Chinese, mind you… talented lil girl!! Lord, I juz pray that You be with her and comfort her, especially right now that she juz found out about the passing of one of her loved ones…
Some random ones abt the home...
EVENING
We did some caroling at three destinations… Practice makes perfect, so I guess by the time they sang for the last house, it was well done already, hehe… Juz a couple of pics taken during the caroling (with the kiddos, hehe)… hey, thumbs up to them!!
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