Service was wonderful. Singing Carols, worshiping God for His wonderful gift to the world (JESUS CHRIST) and also listening to a very challenging sermon from our Beloved Pastor - Rev. Chan Nam Chen. I got to learn a lot from the message, and although he didn't give it a particular topic, I think I am free to tag it as "Life's Uncertainties and God's Certainty"
. He talked about how Uncertain life is....how we can be so unsure of what our tomorrow may be....People live today, yet tomorrow we see them no more...Finances are good today, yet tomorrow you hear of world financial crisis...You have happiness this moment, the next you encounter something that makes you so sad
.Something he said struck my heart, and caused me to ponder. Although we live in a world of uncertainties, Our God is a God of certainties. He took a very good example, pointing us to the birth of Christ which we are now celebrating. He talked about how the birth of Christ was prophesied about 160times in the old testament times of the Bible. How Esias (Isaiah) the prophet talked about the birth of Jesus, and what the birth of Jesus would mean to the situation of Israel at that time. "Christmas is not an uncertainty" said Rev. Chan. God was certain that someone had to be sent to redeem the world. and so He saw the need to send His Son Jesus Christ. When God looks at us, He does not judge by our appearance. We might be living a life of uncertainty, but all we need to do is accept God's gift to us, and make our life insured in Him by drawing close to Him. Then we can be assured about things in our lives that seem uncertain
.Some things about God's certainties:
- They can be confirmed through the Bible. Constant study of the Bible makes you certain of what God has done, cannot do, and what He still can do.
- It has the power to transform us if we allow it to rule our life. Very clearly, this means when you believe in what God can do, and you trust in His word, you will be transformed by the power of His word.
Certain facts:
- We need a Saviour. Datz why God sent His Son right???
- We need God with us. His Son is called "Immanuel" meaning "God with Us"
God's precious gift to Us should be accepted with thanksgiving. That's why as Christians, we celebrate Christmas differently.
Powerful message right? Yeah it was! Though it was a short message, we made a lot of references to books of the Bible especially the book of Isaiah. The message ended with a call for all those who felt uncertain about some things in their lives to step out in Faith and be prayed for. After the message, we had 2 more songs sang, as everyone went about to wish those in Church a Blessed Christmas.
I had some photo sessions with my friends and that was it for the morning. What was next? Go home, take a rest, study a little for upcoming exams, then prepare for outing with friends at 6pm. Yeah! That was what I did. Many people had studying out of their plans for the day...I pride in myself for being so studious...lol...
The outing was a wonderful one. We all went out to a renowned shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur (Mid Valley Mega Mall). The trip down there wasn't so cosy, since we had to go by Train. Five of Us had to catch the 6pm school bus down to the train station, while the other 2 had to come later on cause they were in a meeting and couldn't meet up the school bus. When we got to the station, the train passed by while we were still trying to get our tickets. We therefore would have to wait for another 15mins....Yay!
I hated doing this, standing for 15mins coz there were a lot of people there also, and there were no empty seats. Then I prayed so well that I wouldn't have to stand all the way in the train since this has been the trend most times I've used the trains here in Malaysia. There seems to be a lot of people who prefer to travel by train...Luckily, I didn't have to....Thank God!!!The train arrived and I quickly dashed for a seat. I was pretty lucky!!!
It seemed like a long journey from Kajang to Mid Valley, unlike the 30mins it usually takes... or was it just me being too impatient to get there and have fun??? ha ha!!! Well, finally we got there, and while we had to wait for the other 2 to meet up with us, we spent time taking photos, window-shopping and watching a very funny dance that was going on there in the Center Court of Mid Valley Mega Mall. Very funny one it was!!! The other two finally came, and down we went to NANDOS...Now Nandos is my favorite, and you can imagine how I felt when we got there and realized that there were so many people and we had to be on a queue before we could get in. Well, luckily it wasn't for long, as they found a comfortable position for 7 of us within 10mins. We made our order (I didn't need to look at the menu cos I already knew what I wanted..... ha ha ha!!!
) and then we spent the time waiting and chatting about a lot of things. Food finally came, we took some more photos, and all went into the munching session...Nice meal it was!!!We finally got set to leave at about 10pm, coz we needed to catch the train, and the 11:30pm bus back to school. On getting to the train station, we realized that the counter had closed, and there were several long queues of people waiting to get their tickets from the ticket vending machines. We decided to queue at different points while the first person to get to the front of any of the machines where we were queued up would have to buy for all of us. That really was a good idea since we were all together.After getting the tickets, it was time to wait for the train. We waited for about 15mins for the train to arrive, and luckily it wasn't so full this time, though I didn't get a seat. The journey back wasn't so bad, and we were grateful to God that we met the school bus
.Everyone of us was excited about the outing, and we hope to have another one for New Year's day. I'm going to bed now. No need to study again since I'm very tired. I'll add the photos to my album as soon as I get them.
BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!
