God has no makeshift plans!

It would have been perfect if we bought the first flat we saw and loved in March and if flat prices didn’t rise so drastically shortly after we started looking for a second place. Then, it would have been perfect if we could get it all done up by the time we were wedded and move right in.

But no, we didn’t qualify for a subsidy then and couldn’t afford the flat. We even forfeited some money for the deposit! Later on, we paid a good sum of money more for a flat with lesser space. And no, we can only get the keys to the flat in February. So we are staying temporarily at an aunt’s place.

But there are no makeshift plans in God’s sovereignty, and what a blessing this has turned out to be!

I’ve learned that I am able to say goodbye to a dream home and cold hard cash without feeling the least bit sorry for myself — I didn’t know my faith could enable me to make that choice to rejoice because I’m rich in Christ.

I am blessed by my husband’s attitude towards money — he doesn’t hoard, he always gives. And now I’m blessed by his aunty who is showing me what hospitality looks like — she hosted new Christians for dinner on Christmas eve who she thinks wouldn’t be invited anywhere else.

I feel like I’m more ready now to be a homeowner and to live in it to God’s glory!

Do you hear the sinners singing?

I have been praying especially desperately for a friend’s salvation last week.

(You might be pretty impressed with that. So I gotta say it’s not entirely my zeal for the Lord, but the Holy Spirit’s leading — how else would you explain me suddenly bursting into tearful sobs while folding paper pompoms alone in front of the tv watching a B-grade movie Ramen Girl?)

A verse in Isaiah 62:6-7 encouraged me to keep on praying:

On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance,
take no rest,
and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth.

At the same time, I struggle with remembering that intercession is ultimately not about her or her needs, but about God and God’s glory. In my prayers, I have to prompt myself to pray that God will ultimately work for his name’s sake.

Then yesterday’s worship reminded me that all things belong to God. And it dawned on me that when I pray that God will show mercy to my friend, I’m acknowledging that salvation belongs to him, that he alone has the power to save… I am glorifying God when I intercede! God is not only glorified when sinners repent, but also when his people depend on him!

This question in my head brought tears to my eyes as I was listening to the congregation sing with my eyes shut: “Do you hear the sinners singing?” Yes Lord, it’s the most wondrous sound I ever heard. What can make a roomful of sinful people worship You except by your mercy and grace?

a simple prayer for my marriage

It’s 9 days to the wedding and a start of a same-but-different life. I can’t believe I would no longer come home to and sleep in the same bedroom I’ve had for 25 years. It’s my room, y’know — it’s where I’ve prayed, stretched, danced, crafted, wrote, read, cried, talked and even ate.

I can’t imagine starting all over again with a new place. I felt loads of emotional attachment to the room where I’ve rearranged my furniture countless times because of IKEA magazines haha!

And what’s more I will soon be sharing a room with another person — something I’ve never done my whole life since I’m an only child! Marriage is definitely about sacrifice and service. For me, it will begin with sharing a room, heh.

And then I have to share, gulp, his life! I wonder where his work will lead us in the future, what his dreams and hopes are, and what fears linger in him. I realise I’m marrying a person who is God’s creation, and not mine.

I can’t make him who I want him to be — and that’s a very good thing in God’s wisdom! When I was a dancer, I dreamed of marrying a dashing dancer; when I grew closer to God, I thought a pastor would be a perfect match for me. Clearly my ideal husband would change too often for me to be faithful in marriage if that’s how it works.

I realise I’m marrying a person, not a vocation. Do I have what it takes to love him and serve him my whole life joyfully? I have to ask myself that daunting question. But whatever my fears are, I want to walk these last 9 days remembering that God is in control and asking him for help in all things.

Give me ears to hear you, Chief Shepherd of my soul; and then speak, for thy servant is listening.

If God has chosen me to serve one man (in marriage), then let me do my duty and not count anything that God assigns as too small a job for me.

Let me walk the narrow way of loving one man and his family. If everything I’ve learned and know is used up in doing so, it would not be a waste of my talent, but a fitting offering to God.

The sacrifices will be innumerable, the difficulties countless, the pain immeasurable — oh but how great the joy would be, even on earth, and the rewards in heaven!

what is Biblical Theology?

Learning about biblical theology has opened my eyes to read the Bible and it’s not difficult to pick up its principles. The basis of biblical theology is simple and it goes like that:

There is a unified message in the Old Testament and the New Testament. God progressively reveals his plan to save the world beginning from Genesis, and it climaxes with the coming of Jesus in the Gospels. All Scripture is to be interpreted through this singular event.

Reading the Old Testament completely changed for me. Strange, bizarre events (God blazing through half-cut animals in Genesis 17, or when God rejected David’s temple blueprints in 2 Sam 17), or those that are good-to-know in an interesting but non-life-changing way (Moses’ farewell speech before entering the promised land) are no longer just that.

They actually point to Jesus. Each one of them was God’s way of creating people’s expectation of his arrival and telling them how he will save the world!

Why is this important for me?

1. It helps me appreciate the Old Testament as God’s very own words to us — it is not just a ultra-long preface to the New Testament.

2. It encourages me to work hard at interpreting God’s words even though it takes time and effort to understand it rightly.

3. It deepens my faith in God as I see how he has lovingly communicated with his people over thousands of years, and how Jesus was in his plan from the start.

A thorough grasp of the Bible is a great help in finding relevant passages to trace the revelation of God. When I was studying from my textbook, passages were readily supplied and I often went, “Wow, I didn’t see how this OT passage connects to that NT passage, but now I do!”

I want to be more familiar with all of God’s words. That is why I’m excited to read through the entire bible next year!