i woke up real early this morning, like 6am.  guess its the jet lag :S  anyway i went to the dentist this morning to get my cavity filled up.  it feels SO MUCH BETTER now, i can actually eat without feeling any pain :)  i then visited my dad's new office, which is quite spiffy, even though i don't know what spiffy means.  lunch at plaza sing.  man im so fed up with singapore's traffic!  just like any other big city.  pple are inconsiderate, inconsiderate, inconsiderate.  how singapore is going to maintain a population of 6 million, i have no clue.

prices have gone up too!  i spent $9 worth of food in the food court.  that's wayyyy too much.  the food was good though :)  CHICKEN RICE :D  after that mum and i went around looking for christmas/bday presents.  not too successful though, didn't really get much.  think we'll have to continue this shopping outing tmr.

night was spent out with zhic and grace.  al azhar was closed cos of hari raya.  but i guess it was just as well, cos none of us were hungry.  ended up sitting in macs and talking till 2:30am.  great stuff :)  i love hanging out with pple i'm comfortable with :)

pray that i will meet the pple that i should meet up with, and that i will not meet up with the pple i shouldn't.  and pray for my air ticket back.

finally i'm back!  the plane ride wasn't the best in terms of sleep and comfort, but it was ok nontheless.  being home is... wonderful i think :)

i leave my room in 15 min, to catch the cab to the airport.

its harder to leave every time.  much as this place isn't home, over the years it does become a home away from home.  it's hard to imagine my life now without princeton, just because it's been my life for the past 1.5 yrs.  i can't imagine what it'll be like when i graduate...

but for now, i'm really looking forward to going home :)

i will be back in singapore from 20th-25th dec, 2nd-11th jan. so.....

date me! :D

:)

for my Bible reading, i'm now in Deuteronomy.  it's interesting to see that even in the midst of laws, God's love for His people and His willingness to do things for them is evident.  Just reading Deut 7 today made me realize how much God really does for us.  The phrases "The Lord will" and "He will" appear so many times, indicating that the Lord wants to act on our behalf.  very similar to the terms of the new covenant in Hebrews 8.

12 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
13 Six days you shall labour and do all your work,
14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.  In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
- Deut 5:12-15

verse 15 caught my attention.  in this verse God tells us the reason for the Sabbath.  as Jesus said in Mark 2:27- "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath".  The purpose of the Sabbath was not so that the Pharisees could bind the people with their many laws of not doing work.  The whole purpose of the Sabbath is stated in v15, for the Israelites to stop and remember the mighty work God had done for them.

in the same way i believe that during the Sabbaths i take, i should not focus on not doing work, but focus on God's mercy and grace in my life.  remember that it is God who brought me through the weak.  that i was a slave to the trappings of this life, but God has set me free from all of it.  as i not do work, i remember that it is God who is the one who is really doing the work.

this line tickles me every time i hear it:

"She laughs at my dreams, but I dream of her laughter"
- Just the Girl, The Click Five

haha so funny.  anyway a more profound line, but in the same vein:
"When I make time for God, God makes time for me"
- Kenneth Tay, 11 Dec 2007

:D

All Is Well

All is well, all is well; angels and men rejoice.
For tonight, darkness fell into the dawn of love's light-
Sing alleluia!

All is well, all is well; let there be peace on earth.
Christ is come!  Go and tell that He is in the manger-
Sing alleluia!

All is well, all is well; lift up your voice and sing.
Born is now Emmanuel, born is our Lord and Saviour,
Sing alleluia, sing alleluia, all is well!

such a beautiful song.... i wish i had it on my computer!

today i went for two events that celebrated the birth of Jesus- church and the inter-fellowship vespers service.  during church, pastor matt, instead of giving a usual sermon, did a recitation of the christmas story from memory.  he picked out verses from all over the New Testament to make a coherent account of the christmas story and what it means.  i was really blessed by it, and it was such a good reminder that the Bible is the living Word, not just dead words on dead pages.  the vespers service is held once a yr, where there is choral singing, congregational singing and scripture reading.  beautiful music....

i heard the above song twice today, once at each service.  this song touched me more than all the rest, possibly because of its sweet melody, but more because of what was running through my head.  as the singers sang "all is well, all is well", the melody seemed to hint to me that even though all is well now, someone had to pay the price for my shalom.  there was some sort of sacrifice involved in my blessing.  as the song played the images that ran through my head were not nativity scenes, but scenes from the passion, from Christ's death on the cross.  the flogging, the ridicule, the cross.  the dark clouds, the loud cry "it is finished!", the resting of his head on his lifeless body.

christmas is a joyous time for us now, yes, but i can only imagine what it must have been for God then to send His Son down to earth, knowing full well that the only purpose of His life was His death.  as the song played, i imagined the bittersweet feeling God must have felt when Jesus was born.  what a sacrifice, to give up your most treasured to your enemies.  christmas is a joyous time, because of that very sacrifice.

and really, if u think abt it, the christmas story makes no sense without the gospel story.  there really is no good news to speak about without Jesus' death on the cross.  so what if God dwelt among us?  if He did not die for us, we would still be in our sins.  we would not be able to approach His throne of grace.  why would there be any reason to rejoice in his tabernacling among us?

an image that stuck in my mind was one that foreshadowed the death of Jesus, even as he was just born.  in Luke 2:7, it says that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths, almost like the linen cloth that he would be wrapped in in the tomb 33 years later.  the manger that He laid in was also a sign that He was born to die.  i remember when i went to Israel in 2004, our tour guide showed us a manger in solomon's stables.  it was not wooden, as one would imagine.  rather, it was like a trough hewn out of a rock.  how interesting it is then, that little baby Jesus would be laid in a hole carved out of a stone, just like how his body would be laid to rest after 6 agonizing hours on the cross.

He was born to die.  and that is the true christmas story, that we can rejoice in His birth, because it was His birth that made His death, and our salvation and reconciliation with God, possible.  and as we celebrate christmas, let us remember, that truly (though this might sound cliched) He is the reason for the season.


As little children we would dream of Christmas morn
And all the gifts and toy we knew we'd find
But we never realized a baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

We were the reason that He gave His life
We were the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live

As the years went by we learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves and what that means
On a dark and cloudy day a man hung crying in the rain
All because of love
All because of love

I finally found the reason for living
It's in giving every part of my heart to Him
And all that I do every word that I say
I'll be giving my all just for Him, for Him

friday was not a good day for me.  i received 2 problem sets from classes which i thought had no more problem sets left for the semester.  that completely took the wind of out me, and even though i would say they aren't that hard, they really made me depressed.  having 7 problem sets to finish in 11 days was not a pleasant thought.  it didn't help that i hadn't been sleeping well the whole wk, routinely waking up before my alarm clock would ring.  i was very close to the tipping point... it's been a hard semester, not just in terms of work but more in terms of sleep i think.  the weather didn't help either, with the sun setting before 5.

but u know, God is good.  God is always there, whether I know it or not.  and God sent good friends that really cheered me up.  and i'm feeling so much better now (even though i'm still tired), i feel like i have it in me for one final sprint.  thank you :)

few days to home! :D