Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone
just want to thank you all so sincerely for this year
you guys have made this year so memorable, wonderful and special for me! if not for your presence i would be so much the less without it!

hope that this year's season of Christmas where we celebrate the birth or advent of our Lord Jesus Christ finds you happy and holy (and whole)! May you all continue to be richly blessed by God our Almighty Father, His Son Jesus and the Most Wonderful and Blessed Counseller the Holy Spirit!

looking forward to seeing you all in 2009 for more fun and a deepening of our faith!

Much love and Merry Christmas to you all!
Andrew

My addiction

This is an adaption of Neyo's song because I'm officially addicted to God!

"Because of You"

Want to, but I can’t help it
I love the way it feels,
It’s got me stuck between my destiny and what is real
Sing to you when I want to, sing to you when I don’t
Tell myself I’ll stop everyday, knowin’ that I won't

[Bridge:]
I got a problem cos I don’t know what to do about it
Even if I did, I don’t know if I would ease but I doubt it
I’m taken by the thought of You, and I know this much is true
Jesus, you have become my addiction, I’m so strung out on you
I’m filled with joy and I like it

[Chorus:]
And it’s all because of you [3X]
And it’s all because…
Never get enough,
He’s my glorious love.

[Verse 2:]
Think of You every second
I can't get nothing done,
Only concern is the next time, I’m gonna sing you songs
Know I shouldn’t steer away from, but gamsat’s creeping up
I try and try but my obsession wont let me be

[Bridge:]
I got a problem cos I don’t know what to do about it
Even if I did, I don’t know if I would ease but I doubt it
I’m taken by the thought of You, and I know this much is true
Jesus, you have become my addiction, I’m so strung out on you
I’m filled with joy and I like it

[Chorus:]
And it’s all because of you (all because of you) [3X]
And it’s all because…
Never get enough,
He’s my glorious love

Ain’t no doubt, so strung out [2X]
Over you, over you, over you

Because of you,
And it’s all because of you,
Never get enough
He’s my glorious love, He’s my glorious love.

Strong Christians

Sermon from Pastor Philip Mantofa (in Taiwan)

This cracks me up, Pastor Philip is so awesome in his sermons and healing services. Check out what he says...

When you are with your friends, your friends say "I change girlfriends every 2 months" and your friend is a womaniser, you are the only one who's different. They mock you, they say "Oh, you are a priest... Father! Father!" People mock you, I had that kind of treatment when i was younger, when they say "Father! Father!". I will not be angry or offended, why should i be offended? Why should i be offended when they associate me to the Lord? I should be proud, so [when] they said "Father! Father!", I said (in a deep voice) "Yes - I bless you! I bless you!".
:D

They say that you should have a lot of girlfriends, they say that you should cheat on your girlfriend, cheat on your wife, your husband. You say to them, "no i will just have one girlfriend and i will marry her". I will just have one girlfriend, holy, Godship, and I will marry her. They say "Oh you are so old fashion" [and I said] "Yeah - i come from biblical age!"
:D

Father's Love Letter

An Intimate Message From God to You

God Loves You. And He is the Father you have been looking for all your life. This is His love letter to you...

My Child,

You may not know me,
but I know everything about you.
Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up.
Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways.
Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.
Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image.
Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring.
Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived.
Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation.
Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book.
Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth
and where you would live.
Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother's womb.
Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born.
Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented
by those who don't know me.
John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry,
but am the complete expression of love.
1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you.
1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child
and I am your Father.
1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could.
Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father.
Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.
James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs.
Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless
as the sand on the seashore.
Psalms 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you.
Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession.
Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you
with all my heart and all my soul.
Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things.
Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart,
you will find me.
Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you
the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires.
Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you
than you could possibly imagine.
Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you
in all your troubles.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted,
I am close to you.
Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart.
Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away
every tear from your eyes.
Revelation 21:3-4

And I'll take away all the pain
you have suffered on this earth.
Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you
even as I love my son, Jesus.
John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed.
John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being.
Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you,
not against you.
Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression
of my love for you.
1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved
that I might gain your love.
Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,
you receive me.
1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you
from my love again.
Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I'll throw the biggest party
heaven has ever seen.
Luke 15:7

I have always been Father,
and will always be Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…
Will you be my child?
John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you.
Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your Dad
Almighty God

Falling in Love with God

God loved you before you were born, and God will love you after you die. In Scripture God says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." This is a very fundamental truth of your identity. This is who you are whether you feel it or not. You belong to God from eternity to eternity. Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, "I love you too." If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realise that your life is very, very special... This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love and give love. - Henri Nouwen (Finding My Way Home - Pathways to Life and the Spirit)

What a beautiful and touching way to look at our relationship with God! When I stop and pause to think about my purpose in life and why God put me here on this Earth, I think it can be defined by one simple yet powerful word - Love. Reaching out and serving others springs from a desire to share this deep love of God with those around me. Acts of kindness = acts of love. We were born to be lovers of Christ!

How does one "fall in love"? Like any good relationship, I believe there needs to be a strong sense of trust, courage and faith. A degree of self-abandonment. To let go and willingly take God from our Sunday day of obligation, and to allow him to propagate our core being - our total self! Only then is He the centre of our being... our sounding board for every decision, choice and action.

For me, it occured last year during a CGC retreat where we studied the first encylical letter by Pope Benedict XVI called "Deus Caritas Est" (Latin for "God is Love"). It was a turning point for me as during a heartfelt confession, I was challenged to jump off the cliff edge and proclaim with hand on heart... "JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!".

Trust wholeheartedly in Yahweh, put no faith in your own perception; acknowledge him in ever course you take, and he will see that your paths are smooth" (Proverbs 3:5)

Just knowing that God will be there to catch me when I fall off that cliff gives me a sense of liberation. Freedom. I used to worry and stress a lot about what others think. Of how I will be perceived. Perhaps this was because I trusted God 80% of the time, but for 20% of the time I would doubt that he wasn't listening completely.

Our fears are what limit us.

Nouwen eloquently reflects the fullness of God's love... "In this world when you are chosen, you know that somebody else is not chosen. When you are the best, you know that somebody is not the best. When you win and receive a prize, you know there is somebody who lost. But this is not so in the heart of God. If you are chosen in the heart of God, you have eyes to see the chosenness of others. If the Love of God blesses you, you have the eyes to see the blessedness of others."

Now I can loosen up and smile! :) Because I know what God wants counts most... and he is always there to help and guide me along my own journey. We are all called to shine and dance freely with God!

So I challenge you to give your heart to God!

God truly loves me more than I love myself.
God desires my happiness.
God knows best how I'll be happy.
(Fr John Powell SJ)

PRAYER TO LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL THINGS
God, my Father, may I love You in all things and above all things. May I reach the joy which You have prepared for me in Heaven. Nothing is good that is against Your Will, and all that is good comes from Your Hand. Place in my heart a desire to please You and fill my mind with thoughts of Your Love, so that I may grow in Your Wisdom and enjoy Your Peace. Amen.

When Pigs Fly and Monkeys Type

=== posted here for your reading pleasure ===
article by GERALD SCHROEDER

Stephen Hawking in his A Brief History Of Time taught the world that given enough time, monkeys hammering away on typewriters could type out a Shakespeare sonnet.

It is a nice adage but totally off base, at least within the reality of our world. Having gone to MIT I don't know many sonnets. In fact when I thought about this I only knew the opening line of one, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day." There are a bit fewer than 500 letters in that sonnet [All Shakespeare's sonnets are about the same length; all by definition 14 lines long.]

Let's consider a grab bag with the 26 letters of the English language in it. I reach into the bag blindfolded and pull out a letter. The likelihood that it will be 's' for the first letter of the sonnet is one chance in 26. The likelihood that in two draws I will get an 's' and then an 'h' is one chance in 26 times 26. And so on for the 500 letters. Neglecting spaces between the words, the chance of getting the entire sonnet by chance is 26 multiplied by itself 500 times. That number comes out to be a one with 700 zeroes after it. In conventional math terms, it is 10 to the exponent power of 700.

To give a sense of scale for reference, the known universe including dark matter and black energy weighs in the order of 10 to the power 56 grams; the number of basic particles [protons, neutrons, electrons, mesons] in the known universe is 10 to the power 80; the age of the universe from our perspective of time, 10 to the power 18 seconds. Convert all the universe into micro-computers each weighing a billionth of a gram and run each of those computers billions of times a second non-stop from the beginning of time and we still will need greater than 10 to the power 500 universes, or that much more time for even a remote probability of getting a sonnet; any meaningful sonnet. Chance does not produce intelligible text and certainly not a sonnet, not in our universe.

But so convincing is the Hawking argument that the students at the Plymouth University in England convinced the National Arts Council to put up 1500 Sterling, about $3000, to try monkey typing skills. They rented a monkey house for a month. Six monkeys hammered away on a computer key board and failed to produce a single English word. Surprised, since the shortest word in the English language is one letter long? Surely the monkeys must have hit an 'A' or an 'I' in all their efforts. But think about it. To a make an 'A' a word requires a space on each side of the 'A'. That means typing: space, 'A,' space. If there are about 100 keys on the computer key board, the probability is one chance in a 100 times 100 times 100 which comes out to be one chance in a million. Random guessing in a spelling bee is always a losing proposition. And that is for a single letter word.

But what about life? Could random mutations have actually produced the ordered complexity of life, or even a viable protein? Mutations that are to be passed on to the next generation must occur in the genetic material of the reproductive line, which is in the DNA of sperm or egg. That mutation results in a variant (mutated) protein which might produce a new more effective type of organ, say a better muscle or the beginning of a transition from fin to foot. That would be the neo-Darwinian concept. But let's look at that process rigorously. When we do we'll see it does not work if randomness is the only driving force.

The building blocks of all life are proteins. Proteins are precisely organized strings of amino acids. Information held on the DNA determines the order in which the amino acids join together to form the end-product, the protein. So if the DNA mutates, we get a different amino acid and hence a different protein. Now comes the problem of mutations in the theory of neo-Darwinian randomness.

The genetic system of all life is totally coded. An example of code would be the Morse code sounds, 'dot dot dot dash' which look, sound or seem nothing like the letter 'V' for which they code. If you did not know that this sequence of sounds represented a 'V' you'd not have a clue as to its meaning. And so it is with the data on the DNA. Though the data on the strands of DNA (the chromosomes) in our cells carry the information for the amino acids and proteins that are to form, the data on the DNA are held as assorted groupings of four different nucleic acids. Nucleic acids have absolutely zero physical resemblance to either amino acids or proteins. The information is totally coded.

In nature, this lack of similarity between code and final product ensures that there is no logical feedback from protein or amino acid to DNA. Information flow is one way: DNA to amino acid to protein. New mutant variations of proteins can arise only through mutations at the DNA that have no physical hint of the final protein product.

In all known life, there are only 20 different amino acids. Stringing them together in varied sequences produces varied proteins, just as intelligently stringing letters together in varied sequences will produce varied sentences and sonnets. Scientific literature suggests that all of life is made from combinations of fewer than a million different proteins. Other proteins are either useless [neutral, adding no selective advantage for survival] or lethal. But let's say our estimate is off. In place of 1,000,000 viable proteins, let it be 100 million or billion or trillion viable proteins.

Here are the crucial numbers:

Proteins vary in length from strings of a few hundred to a few thousand amino acids. Consider a relatively short protein, such as 200 amino acids long. Into each of the 200 spaces any one of the 20 amino acids can fall. That means the total number of possible combinations is 20 times 20 times 20 repeated 200 times. The result is a one with 260 zeros after it, or 10 to the power of 260 or a billion billion billion repeated 29 times. From this vast biological grab bag, we are told that nature by random chance mutations has been able to form the fewer than a million proteins that don't kill the organism. This did not, and could not, and will not happen by chance. And every biologist enamored with neo-Darwinian evolution knows it. Their feeble reply is that there must be other factors that limit the types of mutations that can occur. There certainly are…but not as randomly as the materialist biologist would have it.

The unrealistic possibility that the selection of viable proteins could have occurred by unguided random mutations in the DNA led Simon Conway Morris, professor of evolutionary paleobiology at Cambridge University, Fellow of the Royal Society of England, and possibly the world's leading paleontologist, to write his book, Life's Solutions (Cambridge University Press, 2003). In it we read: "Life is simply too complex to be assembled by random reactions on any believable time scale. … evolution [has the] uncanny ability to find the short cuts across the multidimensional hyperspace of biological reality. …"

This opinion is also found in the writing of Nobel laureate, organic chemist and a leader in origin of life studies, Professor de Duve, in his excellent book, Tour of a Living Cell:

"If you equate the probability of the birth of a bacteria cell to chance assembly of its atoms, eternity will not suffice to produce one. ... Faced with the enormous sum of lucky draws behind the success of the evolutionary game, one may legitimately wonder to what extent this success is actually written into the fabric of the universe."

Life written into the fabric of the universe. Sounds like design to me.

Noble laureate, Professor of Biology, Harvard University, the late George Wald, may have provided us with the answer to this wonder when he wrote "Life and Mind in the Universe" in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry: Quantum Biology symposium 11 (1984):

"It has occurred to me lately - I must confess with some shock at first to my scientific sensibilities—that both questions [the origin of consciousness in humans and of life from non-living matter] might be brought into some degree of congruence. This is with the assumption that mind, rather than emerging as a late outgrowth in the evolution of life, has existed always as the matrix, the source and condition of physical reality—that stuff of which physical reality is composed is mind-stuff. It is mind that has composed a physical universe that breeds life…."

This is science, not theology, speaking. But it is also theology.

"In the beginning was the logos [logos-logic, intellect, word]" (John).

A few hundred years earlier,

"With the word of God the heavens were made." (Psalm 33).

And a few hundred years before that,

"B'raisheet (With wisdom) God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis I:1).

[Not 'In the beginning.' That is the erroneous mis-translation of the Hebrew word B'raisheet introduced by the Septuagint]

If indeed wisdom, logic and mind are the essence of existence, then the conundrum of the origin of the life's design is solved. The Intelligence behind the design is ubiquitous in every particle of the world and most evident in the brains and minds of humans as we puzzle over our cosmic origins.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Gerald Schroeder. "When Pigs Fly and Monkeys Type." tothesource (October 2, 2007).

THE AUTHOR

Gerald Schroeder holds a BSc, MSc, and PhD all earned at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds a PhD in two fields: Earth and Planetary Sciences; and, Nuclear Physics. His formal theological training includes fifteen years of study under the late Rabbi Herman Pollack, Rabbi Chaim Brovender and Rabbi Noah Weinberg. He spent seven years on the staff of the M.I.T. Physics Department prior to moving to Israel and joining the staff of the Weizmann Institute of Science and then the Volcani Research Institute and the Hebrew University Isotope Separation Mass Spectrometer facility. He is currently teaching at the Aish HaTorah College of Jewish studies in Jerusalem.

His Name is Joseph

I’ve heard the story of the Annunciation so many times that I think I've started to tune out if ever I come across it.

But I came across this song sometime last year, a reflection on Mary's "yes" to God. I love it because of how it was able to put me in Mary's shoes, understand a little of how she might have felt when the Angel Gabriel put the proposition (proposed?) to her.

What moves me the most is the way that I’d like to think Mary would have prayed to God about this. The account in Luke doesn’t give a time frame of how quickly Mary made her decision, but I’m sure God would have allowed her time enough to discern her answer.

In particular, I like the way that in the song, Mary

• Confides her deepest feelings to God: “I admit that I am scared; I was really not prepared” and “It is one thing for me to walk into this glorious unknown; But another, Lord, to think that I must do it alone”
• Tells God about Joseph and her fear of losing him if she accepts His proposal: “But I ask your reassurance for the love that found me: His name is Joseph; he is a carpenter. I believe our hearts are destined for each other”
• Accepts God’s proposal/will for her, despite her fears: “But let the world think what they will; For today your promise is fulfilled” and “So you have chosen this for me; I accept it willingly”
• Asks God honestly for what her heart desires: “But as for him, I cannot tell; I can only pray you've chosen him as well” and “If he goes, life will not end; But I could truly use a friend"
• Considers the feelings of those around her as part of her discernment: “And when you find him, please tell him gently; This is something I can't think he'll understand; Oh send your angels to sing to him”

This is exactly the appeal that Mary has for me: her gentle humility, her humanity, and the fact that she understands completely what it is like to be single, in a relationship, and married. She is totally our mum and is someone that will listen to us and pray to God on our behalf!

Dearest Mary,

Thank you for your example of humility, love for our God and complete trust in His will. Thanks also for being such a good mum for Jesus and good wife to Joseph, so that He was able to grow up in such a loving family.

Please pray for me. Please ask the Holy Spirit to be with me always and inspire me so that I may remember to include God when making my decisions, and that I will learn to discern the way that you have.

Please pray that I may learn to trust God as you did, especially when I have to make hard decisions that will affect those around me. Please pray that I will remember always that our Father loves me and only ever wants the best for me.

Please continue to pray for all of us as we step through life – to appease the anger that we incite in our Father as we make mistakes, and continue to guide us so that we might end up with you and your son at the end of our journey.

Life

Life is like a fragile flower
that must be nurtured and appreciated
before it wilts away

the crazy thing is,
the paradox
where we finite humans
live as if we shall never die

a reflection of the divine image?

Love

A quote that I came across - not sure who wrote it!

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.

the pursuit of Happiness (with a Y!)

I pose the questions put by Fr John Hardon in an article on happiness

How is it that what everyone is looking for, so few seem to find? And how is it that what all the wise men of history have been teaching, so few seem to have learned? It cannot be that people's desire for happiness is not strong enough. It is on examination the strongest impulse of human nature

As St Augustine (~late 4th, early 5th century) says,

"Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible."

It's interesting isn't it... this search for happiness drives all our interactions and relationships with others, so it's a bloody important thing to understand. Our own pursuit of happiness us actually a critical component to one's spiritual life! Let alone LIFE in general...!

So why is this the case? Why are the majority of people not happy? Do we just not have the right concept of happiness? Not willing to pay the price to achieve it? Or do we have so many desires now that we do not know how to be happy?

I'm of the view that it's probably all of the above, but importantly, maybe we just don't know where to look.

So we are all engaged in the pursuit of happiness but most are not sure where to start...

There are voices everywhere that beckon us to happiness.. lets take a look at a few of them:

- wealth
- relationships (romantic, platonic i.e., just friends
- sex (maybe this should come under entertainment?)
- entertainment and the pursuit of pleasure (hedonism)
- career
- reputation and fame
- knowledge
- power
- academic achievement
- physical beauty
- alcohol and drugs

On the list there, all of them are good in themselves, and have a place in our lives especially when used in the right context. (Maybe except illicit drugs which aren't used for pain-relief purposes... magic mushrooms he he ). However, to pursue them in order to fill a gap in our lives is a falsity that is proved by experience.

The best way to learn is through the mistakes of others, and it is quite evident that these things do not satisfy by themselves! They may cause temporary, transient feelings of pleasure and contentment, but eventually the drive for.... something MORE tugs at the heart again. There is more to life than these!

Usually, most people do not recognise that these are 'false' cures of happiness and interpret the feeling of lack, this "gap", as meaning they have not yet attained the pinnacle of that wealth, pleasure, relationships, career etc... so they go to more extremes in order to try fulfil this longing.


Part II later. I'll leave you with some thoughts...

true happiness will allow us to fully reflect the love of God to others and is part of the "peace that the world cannot give" that Jesus promises to his disciples.


and more in Augustine’s Commentary on Psalm 32.

All men love happiness, and therefore men are unreasonable in wanting to be wicked without being unhappy. And whereas unhappiness is the inseparable companion of wickedness, these perverse folk not only want wickedness without unhappiness, which is an impossibility, but they want to be wicked on purpose to avoid being unhappy. What do I mean by saying they want to be wicked on purpose to avoid being unhappy? Consider this point for a moment: in all the wickedness men commit, they always desire happiness. A man steals; you ask: “Why?” For hunger, for need. So he is wicked for fear of being unhappy, and all the more unhappy for being wicked. For the sake of driving away unhappiness and obtaining happiness, all men do whatever they do, good or bad; they invariably, you see, want to be happy. Whether they lead a good life or a bad one, they want to be happy; but not all attain to what all desire. All wish to be happy; none will be so but those who wish to be good. And then, lo and behold, someone or other, although doing wrong, wants to be happy. How? With money, with silver and gold, with estates and farms, with houses and servants, with worldly magnificence, with fleeting and perishable honors.

Working within God's will

During my stuvac period, I was studying hard and using msn + facebook until Andrew kindly reminded me to get off facebook... hehe! During this time, I noticed the Windows Live Today pop up page had a nude picture of different women everyday with her private parts covered. I was so annoyed and I knew it wasn’t the time for me to take action until I finished my exams. For the next few weeks they continued to show different nude pictures. When my holidays finally came, I sent them a long feedback saying how offended I was that they are degrading my experience using MSN while trying to communicate with my friends and family. The very next day after sending my long lecture to their customer feedback service, they cleaned up MSN and I haven’t seen another nude picture since then.

I was influenced by a Pastor’s sermon on my mum’s CD, who told a story about her experience of seeing nude magazines in the convenience store. She went to the store person and told them that she was offended and asked them to take down the magazines. The store person did as she asked.

The incident with MSN was alarming to me because I thought about my little cousins, friends and millions of other people who were exposed to these pictures, which were imposed on them just by signing into MSN. I wanted to share this with you because I hope that you will guide those around you who do things against God’s will.

JC

God's will

GOD'S WILL

I look to the left
and look to the right
no friend beside me
no end in sight

the road is long
the going tough
the heat is burning
the ground is rough

yet no evil will i fear
though doubts assail me
though inner voices cry
and rail and betray me

how could God be this way?
how could He let this be?
why am i in such a bind?
is he, God, out of his mind?

ask not why
but understand
reads a sign by the Spirit
written in the sand

MAKTUB. It is written, so the Alchemist said,
It is God's will.
God's will that you make it alive
much rather than dead.

and so His will unfolded
and i slowly understood
that my path had been made easy
guided and good

so i thanked him heartily
and gave him a smile
and stopped by to linger
and listen a while

to the sounds of laughter
from heaven above
of songs of joy and happiness
and the peace of the Dove

refreshed i continued
taking stride by stride
with newfound interest
and newfound pride

and i know that this journey
when the day is done
will find me in heaven
with the loving Three-in-One

God's Will and Free Will - Part 2

I split this post into a number of parts because this topic is really close to my heart and I could write so much about it... better that these be split up into separate posts that can be read on their own rather than one long essay.

The first part was my reflections on the bigger picture of how it was possible that God's will and our free will can co-exist. In this part I wanted to share my thoughts on practically, how I imagine these to actually work together. I will then post a third part on what exactly I think God's will is and how to apply it in our daily lives.

I pray that these thoughts will help you in growing closer to God - I found that figuring this out helped me to rely more on God and put more trust to Him! =)

============================

I imagine my life to be a journey towards some final destination. Visually, it might look like a map, with me travelling between two dots. I imagine that God desires that I will end my journey with Him in heaven - this is God's will/plan for my life.

I imagine that I have been given the chance to make my journey between my starting point and the end point however I like - and also to choose where I end up. If God had his way then I would travel in a straight line between my starting point (birth?) to my final destination - which He hopes will be heaven.

Because I am human and often make the wrong choices, I often stray from the path that he hopes I will walk - which probably would be the most suitable/easiest path for me. I choose to turn left when he hopes I will turn right, I don't move when I should, or I turn around and go back in the same way that I came when He hopes I will move forward. Because of this, my life seems to be full of challenges and suffering - and so much of the time I blame God for putting these roadblocks in my journey.

Little do I know that every time i made a wrong turn, He reoriented everything in the map so that I still have the best chance at getting to my final destination. Every time I stop when I'm meant to move, or move when I'm not supposed to, He adjusts everything so that my chances of ending up with Him are not jeopardised. How can He do this? Short answer - because He is God.

I believe He is able to do this because I believe 'linear' time (past, present, future) is a human concept. Because we are human, we have to do one thing after the other and can't go back or jump into the future. However God isn't human, and He isn't bound by time. Everything in our lives happens at the same point for Him. My being born, my wedding, my first step, the day I die, my graduatiion... it's all happening for him right NOW. And so, He is able to adjust my map while I am making the very choice that throws me off course.

Another way to think about it is in terms of how well He knows me. God is my Father, my creator, my God. He knows every hair on my head, every thought that has gone through/is going through/will go through my mind. He can 'predict' what I will choose, given a certain situation because of how well He knows me. Because of this, He can alter situations or put me in situations that will maximise my chances of ending up with Him.

(For example, my friends know that my favourite colour is purple. Given the chance to choose between anything purple and grey, they know that I will choose the purple, even before I have made the decision. God is like my friend, except He knows me that much more intimately.)

Does this mean we are manipulated by God? Are we pawns in His 'chess' game? Are we powerless and will He always win? I don't believe so. The most that God will do is put us in situations that will give us a better chance of being with Him. He won't ever make us choose in a certain way - because God is Love, and love is not manipulative nor forceful. God wants us to end up with Him because we want to be there, not because we have been told we 'must' be there.

And I can say with certainty that God, even though He is God, doesn't always get what He wants! He leaves Himself vulnerable to our choices, hoping and waiting ever so patiently that we will choose Him. And that's why the kingdom of heaven is like the father who rejoices over the return of a lost son, like the woman who celebrates when she finds her lost penny, or the shepherd who leoaves his 99 sheep to find the 1 who has gone astray.

God's Will and Free Will - Part 1

We talked a bit about God's will at the retreat yesterday. This led me to think about some questions that I had, and have had asked of me.

What is "God's will"? Is it some map or plan God has drawn up for my life, that I must follow? If so, how can I still have free will? What if I choose to do something that isn't on God's "map" for my life?

Firstly, the definition of the word "will". www.dictionary.com describes it as "to wish; desire; like". That works. So we are talking about what God wishes, or desires for me. "Wish" and "desire" aren't very forceful words... let's come back to this.

So what is it that God wishes for me? I believe that what God wishes and desires for each one of us is much bigger than whether or not I pass a test or get a job. God wants to love me, and for me to allow myself to be loved by Him. God wants to spend eternity loving me. That is what God wills for me - and for every single one of us.

Using the "map" analogy, God's Will is the destination, the ending location. He wants us to end up in heaven with Him. I don't think that he has the path to the end location mapped out for us - we make choices along the way when we come to crossroads, which way to go. This is where free will comes in.

Because God has given us free will, he gives us a choice - to choose Him or to choose "not" Him. By giving me this choice, our ever loving God - who is pure Love - renders Himself vulnerable to me rejecting Him and the love that He offers.

Love makes the lover vulnerable; and so our God - the One who taught the sun where to stand in the morning, and the oceans how far how far it can go - surrenders His power and might, and hands His heart over to me to do with it as I want. I can choose to cradle it or to crush it.

This also means that even though God is God, contrary to popular belief, He doesn't always get His way/get what He wants. He could force things and make things go His way if He wanted, but that isn't the way that our God, or how Love works. Love that isn't freely given isn't love at all.

So at the end of the day, my God is my lover, waiting and longing for me to reciprocate His love... hoping and wishing that I won't scorn Him, or throw everything He's done to woo me back in His face.

Father,

I thank you for everything you have ever done for me. Thank you for creating me and loving me unconditionally. Thank you for being so patient with me while I learn to accept myself and open myself up to you - please help me to see myself through Your eyes so that I can understand why You look at me and say "it is good".

Please continue to be with me so that I learn to desire what You desire, and will what You will. May I be Your hands and voice, so that Your Will will come about in the world.

I pray this through your Son Jesus.

My Prayer for Discerning Vocation

A few of us went on a silent retreat today, and the topic of the day was Discerning our Vocations. When I first started reflecting, I wasn't sure of wher to start... but after reading some thoughts from Thomas Merton, was instead inspired to write the following prayer. I hope you might find it a useful place if you are ever thinking about your vocation!

Dear God,

Thank you for blessing me so abundantly. Thank you for my faith in You, and allowing me to trust You so completely. Please continue to bless me in this way, and protect me if ever i start to lose this faith in You.

I don't know what You want me to do with my life, but I hope You will continue to reveal this to me. Please continue to inspire me to open myself to You, so that I will be able to tell when You are speaking to me.

Please help me to know myself better: show me my strengths, so that I may continue to use these to do Your will. Please show me my weaknesses, so that I may be aware of them, and learn to love myself in spite of them. Please help me work through the many fears that I may feel as I carry out Your work. Help me to remember that with You behind our backs, nothing is impossible.

Finally, please be with me and inspire me to desire what You desire; to will what You will, so that I may be a true reflection of You in everything I do.

I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and God.

God and Science - A Catholic View

In tonight's sharing, we touched a bit on science and religion, and how they fit together. Below is something that I wrote to someone about my thoughts on the topic... let me know what you think!!

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Catholic Teaching to be found here.

This is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which is a place where all the church's official teachings are collated.
See the wiki entry for a start if you want to find out mroe about the CCC.

Back to the Catholic teaching:

You will see from paragraph 282, that the chruch irecognises that everyone s concerned with questions like "Where do we come from?" "Where are we going?" "What is our origin?" "What is our end?" "Where does everything that exists come from and where is it going?".

Para 283 states: "The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man." The fact that it says that scientific studies have splendidly enriched our knowledge,means that the church agees with science in that evolution might have occured as the creation of the world.

Para 284 goes on to say: "The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the universe arose physically, or when man appeared, but rather of discovering the meaning of such an origin...". When they say "these studies", they are referring to what the church is primarily concerned about. And the church is not concerned about the WHEN and HOW the universe arose (it leaves this to science) but it focuses on the MEANING of such an origin - the WHY.

If you keep reading, you will notice that the church does not EVER discredit science, or say that the theory of evolution is wrong. In fact, it doesn't even go down the track of HOW at all, but concentrates on WHY the world has come to be.

Remember what I said - the church never says that Scientific knowledge is WRONG. Maybe part of the reason that the church has not said that evolution is RIGHT, is because scientists themselves call it the THEORY of evolution - meaning they believe it to be the most correct answer right now, but that it has not yet been proven to be the ABSOLUTELY CORRECT answer.

New Beginnings

Today my life begins anew,
awash with love and gentle dew,
For God above is my source of joy,
of strength of hope a steadfast buoy.
My life I give, I consecrate,
To Jesus Christ my life’s soul mate,
Protect me Lord in all I do,
And grant me wisdom - honour too,
That I may make your Kingdom come,
till the return of thy beloved Son.

In all things Lord thy will be done,
not mine dear Lord, but make it fun ;)
that I may follow thy holy way,
strengthen, guide me and help me stay
on track to see You when this race is won,
God the Father, Holy Spirit and blessed Son.

Amen.

Reflections

Whispers in the breeze so light,
a gentle whisper that takes to flight,
once noise and dust do overtake
the Spirit quietly trying to make
a message to a needy soul
who has no time even to clean his bowl
let alone listen to the silent tug
which lonely, empty hearts does plug
with heavenly manna of joy and love
and supernatural peace of the holy dove.

Lord I trust in you and in your mighty plan,
though my heart doth falter and spirit go bland,
Even so I choose to rest in that eternal love,
which holds me closer than a hand a glove
O Lord glorify your servant here!
Who stands sometimes so lonely and wrapped in fear!
This cloak of darkness you have thrown away
and it’s your love and grace that makes me stay
though things may seem a little tough
I know that in the end I won’t be so rough
you’ll polish all the flaws away
that I may rest in your love and in heaven, play

I folks,

Thanks to Edith for coming up with the idea for this web site & setting it up, & chumon for making it look pretty! =P

I'm sure this will be a great contribution to our group, & make it even more fun & enriching! =D

Below are the website references for last week's topic of "Salvation, Justification, Faith & Works", which were in my email.

Particularly the first site, by Peter Kreeft, is a good, short read. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0027.html
Peter Kreeft is a prominent Catholic apologeticist & theologian, converted from Calvinism.

For a good list of some bible references, check out
http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap020800.htm


Another good page for apologetics (explanation of our beliefs) & references from Scripture & early Church Fathers is Lumen Verum Apologetics:
http://www.theworkofgod.org/Library/Apologtc/R_Haddad/Course/Book1-A.htm#JUSTIFICATION

I look forward to all the future contributions & distributions! =D

Intro

Hey everyone!

This page, Footsteps to Heaven, is a result of our Thursday bible sharings!

It's a page where everyone can share their thoughts, ask questions and just reflect along our life journey - as we travel together taking footsteps to heaven. We welcome your thoughts and pray that you get a lot out of this!

We will also endeavour to post up recordings of our thursday sharings as soon as we find a nice home for the audio clips.

See you soon!

Jesus' Invitation

In our discussion tonight, I brought up a "revelation" that I had during the week - it happened while I was reflecting on John 1:35-42.

My thoughts went like this...

- At first, I thought the John in the passage was John the disciple/gospel writer. After reading the verses leading up to verse 35 I realised that we were in fact, reading about John the Baptist (I'll refer to hiim as JTB).

- who were JTB's two disciples? One is named - Andrew - the other is not. Is it reasonable that the unnamed disciple might be John the gospel writer? Considering that John usually lists the names of those who were there at an event, but never seems to name himself, I hope this is a reasonable deduction.

Assuming that the unnamed disciple is John:

- Each of the synoptic gospels lists Simon, Andrew and his brother (Peter), and John and his brother (James) as the first disciples that Jesus calls. See Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:15-20, and Luke 5:3-11.

At first, it seems strange that these men would drop everything and follow Jesus as soon as they meet Him. It also seems a bit unreasonable that Jesus seems to expect us to do the same. However, when we take into account the events in John 1:35-42, we see that Jesus didn't randomly pick up men off the streets to be His disciples, nor did the these men drop everything to be disciples to a stranger.

Instead, each of these men were introduced to Jesus by someone they trusted: Andrew and John were introduced to Jesus by JTB; Peter and James by their respective brothers. (I'm not sure about Simon.) When reading each of the 4 above passages, it would also seem to me that Jesus met and spoke to Andrew and John on one day, and called them on a separate day.

Why is all this important?

1. Just as Jesus didn't pick up random peole off the street, so He does not expect anyone to blindly follow or blindly practice their faith. He reaches out to us through those that we know and trust, and presents opportunities for us to encounter Him, to speak with and experience Him. He gives us the chance to go away, to challenge, question, and understand our expereience of Him, and then to choose to respond when He calls.

2. Even though we are called to challenge and question our faith, at the same time, we are also called to follow, even if we don't have all the answers. Andrew and John would have met Jesus, had a chance to hear His teachings, but when Jesus called, they would not have known everything about this man. Their decision to follow Him was a decision based partly on faith.

3. We are sometimes called to play the part of John the Baptist, Andrew, or John and introduce Jesus to others in our lives. However, it is then not up to us to "convince" them to respond to Jesus' call; instead, we often have to let go, and allow them to make up their own mind whether or not to follow Jesus.