New Life (session 3)

⁷Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.

⁸They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17: 7-8


A person who has new life will be like this tree. It's roots reach the stream, the water provide nutrition and life to the tree. The soil provide a ground for the tree to stand firmly. As the water give nutrition, the tree grow bigger, there are more branches, leaves. The trunk get bigger and stronger, and lastly the fruit start to appear, more and more fruit.

When the fruit is pruned it will drop and provide to those who pass by. When the heat is very strong, the tree is not dry and even people who pass by can take shelter under the tree.

Let us reflect on our life by looking at this tree.

When I look at this tree, is my life look like the tree?

Do I grow stronger? Although heat, wind, and even storm blow am I still standing firmly?

Do I bear fruits?

This tree is the tree that grows because it is always near to the water.

A person with new life is the person who always draw him/herself to the Holy Spirit, the stream of living water.

If you think that you life is not like this tree, ask your self, why?

The Holy Spirit have 3 role when He become our source of life like the stream of water to the tree.

Holy Spirit Helps Me

Holy Spirit Empowers Me

Holy Spirit Sanctifies Me

These are some of the main works of the Holy Spirit in His role to provide a new life for us.

As we have encounter the Holy Spirit in our journey in LISC, let us start to let the Him work in us and give us the new life.

Let our life Renewed by the Holy Spirit.

New Feature- RSS and Email Subscription

Hi all,

Today I just added two features: RSS and Subscribe Via email.

What is these feature for?

1. RSS: It is a way to help us getting updated whenever there is any new entry in the blog. For more detail explanation can refer to Wiki about RSS. In order to subscribe to RSS you will need a RSS reader. The one that I use is from Google : http://www.google.com/reader/

So reading blog will be like reading email, whenever there is new entry you will be notifed by the reader it self.

2. Subscribe Via email: This is simpler, when we subscribe via email, when there is any new entry from the blog, it will be sent to your email.
So you can read the blog from your email.

That are the 2 things that I added today, and I hope it will be helpful!

There will be more entry in few days.

I really cant wait to meet all of you on the Weekend sessions.

Let us Witness His Love.

Jesus, My Lord and Savior

In Luke 9:18-20:

Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’

They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’

He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’

Jesus is asking us the same thing today

Jesus is not interested on what your parents say about Him, what your parish priests say about Him, what your friends say about Him.

Jesus is interested in you. Today He is asking each one of you, "who do you say that I am?"

Do we dare to say, "You are the Messiah, Son of The Living God"? Do we say it from our heart? Or do we say it because our parents said so? Because our friends said so? Or because our parish priest said so?

I am convinced that no amount of hearing or reading stuffs about theologies, how Jesus saves us, about repenting and believing in the good news, will be able to touch any of us here.
Only our own experience of Jesus can touch our hearts, how we have experienced the mercy and love of Jesus.

Right now, try to recall a time when you felt really depressed with your life.

Did you get angry at your friends? Did you experience losing your peaceful life because you refuse to forgive? Did you say to yourself , "I do not need anybody. I do not want to be hurt anymore so I might as well just close myself?" Did you console yourself with pornography, games, or other addictions to sustain you in your loneliness, which makes you slowly forget how to love?

At those times, remember that Jesus is always there. He loves you as you are.
In the presence of Jesus, your past mistakes and your sins don't matter anymore. He has paid for them on the cross 2000 years ago. Believe that you are free, no longer enslaved to the chains of sin.

However, to be free without Jesus is impossible. It's like you just escaped from a prison. After the news spread out, the prison guards would stop you with all their might. They would dispatch spotlights, helicopters, watch dogs, everything to get you back and keep you imprisoned.

In the midst of your worries, Jesus comes to offer you a lift. But He needs your approval. Would you follow Him and be free? Or would you rather go back to the prison of sin?



Would you take pride and say, "I can do this by myself," or be humble and say to Him, "Lord Jesus, I cannot go through this alone. Please help me."

If you choose to be humble and let Him help you, then congratulations! You just started a personal journey with Jesus; a journey of truth and righteousness, where you will be facing a lot more troubles.

Yes, a lot more troubles, since your focus now is not to please humans, but to please Jesus. Yes, You might find a hard time to keep up with His standard. Then people might mock you, "Since when are so holy yah?" You might be troubled and depressed. Moreover, you'll keep falling. Not once, but a lot of times, over and over again.


But why do we keep getting up and follow Him?

Let us take a look at His disciples' lives: Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot.
Peter is so blessed. He baptized thousands of people, he becomes the first pope, he was given the key of heaven, and his life inspires a lot of people until today.
on the contrary, Judas killed himself, and we might still be condemning him by today.

What is the difference between them?
They are both great sinners. They both betrayed Jesus. Peter, by denying Him. And Judas, by selling Him. The difference lies in the choices they made. Peter chose to keep following Jesus, believing in His mercy and love; so he became as we have heard today.
I believe that if Judas did the same, not to live in guilt and kill himself, he could have been a saint by today; to be as great as God wants him to be.

Same things apply to us. The difference lies in our decision.

So reject sin. Choose Jesus instead :)

Amen.

New Feature- Useful Links

Hi all,

Praise God that we've just gone through our 3rd weeks of LISC! Praise God for your commitment, and we just break the record of NTU CSA history by becoming the first group of highly committed people who attend LISC for 3 weeks consecutively.

I just put 3 useful links that you can access:

1. Online Bible : It's a New Revised Standard Version.

2. CCC : This is the link to Catechism of The Catholic Church. The site also provide search engines and cross refference feature.

3. WAU, Daily reading : This is the only version of the Word Among Us.

I hope these links will be helpful for all of you, as it is for me.

I pray for our deepening journey of Faith especially in the session of Lent and LISC.

Praise the Lord for His Love to us.

God's Love, the Love that Satisfies

God’s Love is Unconditional

Whether you like it or not, whether you are worthy or not, whether you are holy or not, He has decided to LOVE you till the end with an unconditional LOVE.
Even if you don’t like yourself, or you feel nobody loves you, HE loves you. God loves you… is a fact. Nothing you can do that can stop Him from Loving you. And actually, there is no way you can hide from His Love (Psalm 139).

God’s Love is Total and Unselfish

Though unconditional, though your sins won’t stop Him from loving you, HE never approves your acting against Him. He wants you to accept His Love, Why?
He loves you unselfishly that He desires the best for you. What can be the best other than God himself?? What else is better than His Love?
For this…… He sacrifices Himself to free you from the condemnation of being eternally separated from Him due to sins.

“For God so loved the World that He gave His only Son, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” John 3:16

My friends, God's love is..... Perfect

So what then ......., I know God Loves Me, so what.....

God’s Love is Personal

He wants to be in a personal relationship with you. Yes, He is your God, Saviour and King. But he also said, "I am your friend" (John 15:15), "I am your spouse" (Hosea 2: 15, 18-19), "I am your father" (Luk 15:1-32, Rom 8:15-16), "I am your food, your daily bread" (John 6), and many more.

He wants to be that personal with you. He knows your name, even before you were created in your mother's womb, he had written your name in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16). He knows every single detail of yours, He is watching over you, even the hairs of your head are all numbered by Him (Mat 10:30).

Some of you may start thinking ..... are you sure??? then how about those bad things happened in my life? WHERE WAS HE... during those moments.
Well, He was there too, giving you strength. In all the good and bad times, he was there, and only Him can eventually create something good out of the bad things happened in your life (Roman 8:28).

He desires to be in a Love relationship, an intimate love relationship with you, and He waits for you to respond....to desire this relationship as well. He wants you to walk with Him and that you may know that you can always run to Him especially during the bad times.

So, don't be afraid to seek, desire, yearn and pray for it.

"When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart" Jer 29:12-13

When God created us, He intended us to be in this love relationship with Him. That is why all the longing and questions in our heart are meant to point to this "Something Perfect". No matter how hard we try to quench this desire with other things, such as wealth, status and other kind of relationships..... we will never be satisfied... for this desire is meant to be quenched with the "Something Perfect", God's Love. That is why, God's Love is the Love that satisfies.

--End Of Summary--

"My heart is restless till it rests in Thee, Oh Lord" - St Augustine of Hippo

Open wide the doors to Christ!

"“Dear young people, like the first disciples, follow Jesus! Do not be afraid to draw near to Him, to cross the threshold of his dwelling, to speak with Him, face to face, as you talk with a friend. Do not be afraid of the “new life” He is offering. He Himself makes it possible for you to receive that life and practice it, with the help of His grace and the gift of His Spirit.” - Pope John Paul II.

"If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide.... Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ ­and you will find true life" - Pope Benedict XVI.

Welcome To LISC 2008

Hi everybody,

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ who attended NTU CSA LISC 2008! Once again I want to welcome you to LISC 2008 " Witness My Love"

Last Tuesday was the beginning of our pleasant journey with Jesus. It was great for me especially to meet all of you, who are very committed to know more about God and to have a personal and intimate relationship with Him.

We had 2 sessions last Tuesday, and they were about:

1. Say NO! to sin and Say Yes! to Jesus

2. Having a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus

3. God's Love

4. Testimonies ( from maggy and ria ) on how their life were touched and changed by God!

Praise the Lord that He has touched and changed the life of many people and the Good News is:

HE Called you to come last Tuesday because He wants to Touch YOU and Reveal Himself To YOU and Give all YOU NEED!!

He has been waiting for you to come to Him, to say yes to Him!!! Let us make our great opportunity in LISC 2008 to come to Him, to say Yes to Him and to Follow Him.