God's not in the wind!

1 Kings c20v11
"The Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord as not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."

Where do we go to find God? God was not in the windstorm, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, even though, these were powerful forces. Notice how people associate God with POWER, like the Moon with a Goddess because of its powerful effects on nature, namely the sea and its tides, and Lightning with Zeus, and Earth with an Earth God... Even fire too...

But God is not in the midst of these forces. No doubt God created these forces, such as the windstorm, the earthquake and the fire, but those aren't God. Really, God is a gentle whisper.

God is not a force... I mean if I were Elijah... and imagine I was in the cave... and I suddenly heard the windstorm, the earthquake, the fire... I would have already thought it was God... And if I treated these forces as though they were God, I would have become really afraid, scared, fearful...

These forces are powerful and is potentially destructive in nature, yet notice the enormous difference from a gentle whisper.

This is no wonder God is a God of comfort... God is a God who speaks to us...

God is no doubt powerful, but that's for His glory so that at least people might come to believe in Him and stand a chance at spending eternity with Him.

But with us, God is gentle...
and it's amazing at times, how I used to think of God as a booming voice, a sign from heaven, a supernatural event... rather than a Gentle whisper.

"Look out for God speaking admist all loud noises of problems, of fears... because He's the gentle whisper."

Kings

1 Kings Chapter 18

"How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!"
+There's a High road, a Low road, and this is the Middle road.

"So they shouted Louder and they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out."
+Why do we need to suffer in exchange from an answer/help from God? There's no need to.. that's Grace.

"O Lord, God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, prove today that You are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord answer me! Answer me so these people will know that You O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back yourself."
+That's the Glory of God... and that is Humbleness.

"I didn't see anything." The servant told Elijah.
Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, "I saw a little cloud about the size of a man's hand rising from the sea."
+That's Persistence, and that's Faith... for 7 times of nothing and finally just a small cloud.

"Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel."
+That's AmAzing.

first Times

i guess significant and insignificant first tImes are good to remember... just remembered one more


NUS Pharmacy: Category 'A' Discretionary Admission Exercise (DAE)
Department of Pharmacy (NUS)18 Science Drive 4Blk S4, Level 2(S) 117543

the first time I went for an interview 4 May (Fri) 2007 - 2.30pm.


my first interview for a school... ... i think the only competitive interview I had ever gone to...


how many first times can you think of?

'nEw'Look

I decided that the font colours were too faint to read... bad for eyes


so i inverted the colours of pictures on my blog... changed most of the font colours too...


yay.


I used microsoft Paint. Use the InvertColor Function (Ctrl+I) together with the select function to invert just a part of a picture.

ExamS all Over aGain

You know what? I just Got back my ISAT results...

On the 2nd Day of Encounter Retreat,
I had my ISAT examination so I woke up at 6.30 and left...

But... i didn't even know what the paper was about.... didn't know what they'd asked... didn't know the format even...

And I didn't know the paper was so long.

It was a 3HouR paper.

During the examination, there were 100 questions.

it was supposed to start at 9.30a.m. but because of all the briefing and fill your name here, fill your I/C there, shade this number, altogether it took 1/2hour. So 10a.m. it started.

They said, if you finish early you can leave, but not during the last 1/2 hour.
And I thought...hmm ISAT must be something easy. I soooo wanted to leave early. I was wrong.

The paper was like marathon that never ended...
an endless uphill where you cannot see the top...
*exaggeration. but it was true to some extent...

After soooooo long of not having to take examinations, this was the hardest paper I did since I can remember.

Whoa. the paper so chim.

I flip flip flip... give me diagrams of wind movement, ice buildup on ship and temperature of air to analyse, give me poems to read and say what it meant, give me political diagrams and articles to read to say which type of systems does a given named government use, give me history and culture of why English people like the swiss use some Tonation that goes higher at the end of their sentences and other English people use it less often... give me bus diagrams and asks which is the shortest distance and which takes the least amount of time and which has the fastest speed, give me cartoons and ask me what it meant, give me economic structures of how society builds up and asks me which factor influences which factor, give me business models and ask me what is the most influential factor that changes production models...

This is one of the poems I had, just a jist of it in simple english... in my own words

Walk walk walk and come to a split path.
There's one that's not walked before and another always frequently travelled...
The less travelled one was not so nice, dark, bushes blocking the way...
And then the author chooses to go through the less travelled one...
And got a lot of problems...
and then he says that it made all the difference..

hmmm * i scratch head....

HAHAha. I'm bad a literature... give me a science question.

They gave me economics, social, cultural, business, language poetry, art, diagrams, charts, tax calculations...


In the middle of the paper, at about question 30-40 and my mind went blank... I read and read and didn't understand...

and I read it through once more... then

I still didn't understand.

I looked around* everyone writing so intensely and some were few tens of questions ahead of me already...

then I prayed.

then I read.

then I begun to understand the concepts, and understand the diagrams and understand what it normally take me super duper long to absorb if I ever did in the first place...

I'm totally not a reader... reading to me gives me bad headaches on many occasions... and always does when I read for a long time...
*maybe it's my eye sight...
*but maybe it's not cos I'm supposed to have perfect 6/6 left right eye.
But when I see articles with many words that are small, there will be times where I suddenly go cross eyed and the words start popping out... seriously. I don't know why it happens but it does... so I seldom read the newspaper... and especially long articles.

I remember I had a phone interview with a University recently. And they asked me do I read often? I said no... seldom. What's the last book you read? and I was dumbfounded for a long long quirky pause which felt quite weird. I ran through my mind desperate to find an answer... hAha
Then I remembered this book called Gift of Pain by Philip Yancey and Paul Brand. Whoa! I read a portion of it... it was really a good book. And I told them about it. *phew phew phew....

anw, back to the exam, it was really amazing that God did help me through it. There was a stark difference at a point while I was doing my exam, and when I prayed cos I was so blank and tired, and after that information poured in so freely as I read the questions... ...

and even though even the articles that had large amounts of text to read, I remembered what I read and could cancel out wrong answers and became so much more confident of choosing the more likely right answer...

and now, I thank God for these grades.

100731 Date of birth 27/12/1987 LIM Given names YU JIN JORDAN SINGAPORE Test date 14/06/2007

ISAT Scores for Critical Reasoning (CR), Quantitative Reasoning (QR) and Overall Reasoning (OR) are scaled in the range of 100-200. ISAT scores are comparable between different versions of the test. Percentiles (%ILE) show the percentage of candidates whose scores are lower than the reported ISAT score.

Critical Reasoning Quantitative Reasoning Overall Reasoning SCORE %ILE SCORE %ILE SCORE %ILE 175 85 183 92 179 89

Typical skills measured by ISAT: Critical Reasoning Analyse information to determine the key claims or issues. Draw approppriate inferences and recognise main implications. Relate claims or information beyond the immediate context. Evaluate the significance and credibility of claims or information. Quantitative Reasoning Analyse and categorise material to identify key information, and comprehend and summarise relationships. Make inferences and decisions based on evidence. Transform, reorganise, synthesise and apply information as appropriate for problems and decision making situations. Conceptualise a strategy to solve problems or identify solutions. Overall Reasoning Comprehend, analyse and apply information, transforming it as appropriate. Evaluate information, evidence and claims. Draw appropriate inferences and make reasoned decisions. Generate and evaluate solutions to problems.

Now I remember how being a student feels like again...haha. I remember the feeling of not being able to answer questions, or being so lost... It's a nostalgic feeling.

But thank God for exams cos it's an opportunity for Him to help you.

firstTimes

dear diary,

the first time in my life i got stung by a bee, 12.30a.m. 19th June 2007, on my bed...that was today early early morning...

* how many first times are there?


the first time i watched a movie all alone was this year, hmm about Jan/Feb, "the Protege"... haha don't ask me why...

the first time i ... ... i drove a car...1/3/2007 Thursday...

hmm can't think of anymore yet...


i thank God that I passed my final lesson of driving. It was my pre-test that I failed terribly yesterday! I don't want to waste money... retaking cos it's costly

driving's so expensive.

Total deposited: $2,116.00
---------------------------breakdown
Practical Training Expenses: $1,613.85
Practical Test Expenses: $154.40
Theory Training Expenses: $106.05
Theory Test Expenses: $12.00
---------------------------Account Balance: $229.70
Cost of Driving: $1886.30

provided I don't fail the $154.40 practical test on the 23rd July 2007...

i thank God for my NSF pay, $660.00 a month. May not be a lot, but its more than pocket money in JC/Sec/Pri School... and it's more than enough so I can pay for driving.

thank God

today, work ended pretty on time at 5.30... yay. I get to go home...
my friend, "oh no, where's my wallet** dig pockets dig pockets*** i think i left it in office..."
oh no!!
me, "here, i've got 2 ez link cards, can use it first, next day den take your wallet home..."
dig dig dig pockets* dig pockets*
me, "hmmm, where's mine too... HAHAha! i left it in my office too!"
oh man!!
haha..Its Good to laugh it off* hAhaha...


anw, I was thinking of many things to thank God for... so many so many so many so many things. don't know where to start... there's significant things, and there's more significant things... let's see

I thank God first and foremost for an 8a.m. - 5p.m. Job with absolutely almost no politics and things to worry about. tell you a secret... i prayed for this since i was in BMT! and when i thought it'd never come.... whoA! it came.
I thank God for my A levels. really helped me through it and always there... you know had so many careless mistakes and unanswered questions for Maths and physics that I dreaded the day I got back my results.
I thank God for my Family... i love them all! and I will never stop thanking God for them.
I thank God for i4C... i love them* such extremely fun people to be with.
I thank God for my SmallgRoup... you kNow, they really encourage me! really really encourage me everyday!
I thank God for my Driving... you know I failed my driving pre-test stage 5.01 today... but, it was still good! Cos I got to drive home today!!! right to my doorstep!!! i'm going to have my real test in July 23rd, 2pm.
I thank God for my friends... my Army friends are great, so are my JC friends, and my Fairfield friends! every one of them...!
I thank God for always answering prayers..
times where God makes time out for me to rest when I asked Him, I remember one day I had the worst headache of my life... and I reached home at 6pm instead of 11pm
times when God gave me an off day so i could go for the encounter retreat... I was practically "forced" to take an off day.
times when God solves things that constantly trouble me like university entry and applications.... and
in the past going to the right JC and the right Secondary school... you know its amazing.
One more point for PSLE and I would have Gone to Commonwealth Sec Sch... i super thank God for Fairfield.
One more point for O levels and I would have not have gone to NJC... i super thank God for NJC
One grade higher for GP and the University i'd go to would be all different... and I thank God and trust Him for that... in the near future. I know I'll never regret...
just like how I thought I'd regret not being able to make it to ACS/Commonwealth in Secondary school, but it turned out to be the best years of my life in Fairfield...
how my years in JC were awesome cos the friends were all so cool... and I remembered I told God i wanted to get into NJC since maybe sec 2? it was like a dream school... and God gave me the exact marks to get in.


ain't God amazing

reading God speaking

1 Corinthians 10:12
If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.
But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

Chapter 13
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1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
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We do not serve to grow, we grow to love those around us and then we'll grow.

just so meaningful

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ's sake,

I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2Cor 12:9