it is with no sadness at all that i announce the closure of this blog...

because it leads to another one! 

in lieu of the exciting changes in store for me over the next 6 months... you're cordially invited to view a brand new blog/website at:

web.me.com/meegohweng

Enjoy! thanks for reading this throughout the years... the scintillating world of scruffy ends, the magic of meegohweng begins!

"there is no fear in love. but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. the one who fears is not made perfect in love." (1 john 4:18)

if understanding how much God loves us and believing in it are so important, how can we tell where we stand in the strength of that belief? verse 18 begins to answer that question. fear and worry signal that we are not yet perfect in our belief in how much God loves us. if we believe that the God of infinite power and wisdom loves no one in the universe more than us, what do we have to fear or worry about?

what good parent does not use all the resources available to ensure the well being of his or her children? we are in the minute-by-minute care of the great God. "if God is for us, who can be against us?" (romans 8:31). similarly, isaiah 43:13 records an important promise from God:

"yes, and from ancient days I am he. no one can deliver out of my hand. when I act, who can reverse it?"

nothing outside of us can stand in His way of accomplishing His purpose to save except ourselves. as difficult as job was, God knew exactly what trial was necessary — in his case, a quite painful one — to get the right result. He knows the buttons to push and the pressures to apply to set each of us straight. job 36:15 tells us:

"but those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction."

a second sign of our lack of faith in His love is how we respond to trials. if we believe in how much He loves us, then we know the trial is for our good. Because of His love, we should know that a trial is not just an arbitrary act without rhyme or reason. because He is God, it cannot be an accidental circumstance happening without His awareness or concern. it definitely cannot be an act just to make our lives more difficult. these might be the thoughts of a child while receiving a spanking, but they should not be ours.

a third way to measure the strength of our faith is to list the things that would make our lives better yet seem to be out of reach. for some, it is money; others, a job; and still others, a mate. psalm 84:11 is a verse we can use to get the right perspective:

"for the Lord God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless."

if we are walking uprightly, our lack of a desired thing is in itself a good indication that at this time it is not good for us, no matter what we might think to the contrary. otherwise, this verse cannot be true. getting what we want rather than what we need can be spiritually lethal.

a final way to measure our faith is to examine if we ever feel we love ourselves more than God does. a person with this attitude begins to take things into his own hands because he cannot trust God to do it — he does not believe how good God is and how much He loves him. to doubt the depth of God's love for us is to deny God and the very essence of who He is — love.

this describes Satan's attitude, one that could be considered insanity. human nature, which mimics Satan's spirit is suicidal, wanting to sin even though it knows the result is death. thus, because human nature contains this spirit of self-destruction, God always loves us more than we love ourselves.

it is vital that we build our faith in God's love for us and realize just how special we are to Him. He loves no one else in the universe more. 1 john 4:17 promises that perfecting our faith in God's love for us gives us the power we need to face our trials, our day of judgment, boldly. in doing so, we will be imitating the faith Jesus Christ exercised in facing His trails, showing absolute faith in God's love for us.

"you brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. but I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. for by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:34-37)

have we ever considered applying this principle a little differently? most of us naturally think of this passage to refer to our conversations with others at home, at work, in church, etc. but what about applying it to ourselves when we are on our knees before God?

have we ever considered that out of the abundance of our prayers - or the lack thereof - our heart speaks?

further, do we deeply consider what we say to God? do we take the time to organize and improve how we present our requests to Him? do we think about the attitude in which we come before the great God of the universe? we may not always count it a blessing but God knows our every thought, every desire, every emotion. It is impossible to hide anything from Him.

"nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (hebrews 4:13)

the beauty in truly understanding this is that we may as well be totally honest with Him, telling Him everything, because He already knows the deepest intents of our hearts!

He sees the tender feelings we have toward the plights of others and our desire to help. He notes the patience, forbearance, and true outgoing concern we have for the church. He knows the deep love we have for those who request our prayers for their healing. He observes our sighing and crying over the wretched world we live in.

conversely, He also sees when we are being self-centered, pigheadedly pursuing our own desires, and justifying what we want as opposed to what is right and good in His sight. He notices when we ignore the needs of others. He surely must shake His head in shame when we excuse ourselves for not doing what we know to be righteous.

God is acutely aware of our attitudes when approaching His throne. He discerns whether we consider time spent in conversation with Him to be of great value, or whether we are just going through the motions. because He knows what we are going through at all times, He knows when we are harboring grudges, doubts, malice, lust, impatience, covetousness, and any other carnal motivation against another. certainly, He realizes that we will not be at our best every time we enter His presence, but He can tell when we are distracted or disinterested.

God is shaping us for future offices in His Kingdom, and He learns a great deal about us as we come before Him in prayer. He truly does listen to what we bring before Him, but He always considers our heart and our reasoning in His response to us.

this does not mean that we have to pray perfectly every time, having every word and rationale in its proper place, although doing so should be our goal. romans 8:26-27 assures us:

"in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."

even though we might not put every word or thought in its proper place, still the ideas, plans, and attitudes in our prayers are amplified and aided by God's Spirit flowing between God and ourselves, and the Father responds according to His will for us. Paul continues, providing us greater confidence and boldness before God:

"and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (romans 8:28)

what joy we should have in knowing that everything will work out splendidly in the end!

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:18-20)

Christians are the victims of an age that is apathetic to a true relationship with God. would anybody in all honesty admit that he would not care to eat a meal with and fellowship with Jesus Christ? yet, He is reporting that in His own church there are some who know that He is at the door, yet will not rouse themselves to answer it and fellowship with Him. they are refusing to fellowship with Him and are so far from Him that they do not even see their need. if there is no awareness of need, there is no desire; no desire, no prayer; no prayer, no relationship, and back to no awareness of need. it runs in a vicious circle.

God is hoping that He can stir us up enough to repent and break out of the cycle — by rekindling an awareness of need. awareness of need is in us because we are close enough to Him to see clearly how holy, gracious, kind, merciful, and good He is, and then we will want to be like He is. in other words, we so admire and respect Him and His qualities that we want to be near Him and will chase after Him, diligently seeking after Him like a lover seeking after his love. we will exalt Him and seek to honor Him by being like Him. it is our responsibility to seek Him with all our might — with everything in us.

I've been doing my best recently, reading the Bible just by itself, without the crutch of some material to hinder what God is telling me. Don't get me wrong, i think devotional materials and books are great, and they have blessed me a lot, but I just wanted to see for myself if God would speak to me purely from the Word. And He did! Amen to that. 

Life often spins by us: school work, catching up with family and friends, the endless pursuit of more material wealth and comforts - but have you ever paused to think how big this universe really is? 

I just spent about half an hour on YouTube watching videos of space and deep space and whatever else. but beyond that, God showed me some things which pricked at my heart.

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God" - 1 Cor 3:19

The universe, according to some estimates, is 38 billion light years across. Could be more, don't trust my numbers if you're a factoid hunter. But seriously, 5.88 trillion miles a year x 38 billion = a load of math we don't wanna comprehend. Yet Satan has so completely wound a society of disbelief that amazingly, i've read comments like "God sucks, science is the way to go." Science, as far as i am concerned, has never done anything more THAN prove that God exists. 

Take our sun for example. Louie Giglio states that it would take the annual GDP of the United States of America X 7 MILLION YEARS to power the sun for ONE SECOND. That's how powerful the sun is, in our puny human terms. and yet, the sun itself is considered one of the less powerful stars we know. Think about that. Think about how God breathed this star out of His mouth.

Psalm 33:6 - "The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born."

in September 2003, the Hubble telescope pointed its lens out into what seemed like an empty patch of space, 38 billion light years away. This is called the Hubble Deep Field project or something. 11 days later, it came back with an astounding picture. What seemed empty to us, was actually filled with BILLIONS of galaxies. I know, billions is big word and we may not be able to get it, but let's break it down. 

We live in the solar system, 1 of 8 planets orbiting the Sun. our next closest star, Alpha Centauri is 5 light years away - 93 trillion miles away. Travel loads more billions of miles, and you get to the edge of the Milky Way, which is our little neighbourhood in space. Space, by the way, contains HUNDREDS of BILLIONS more neighbourhoods, most bigger than ours. But I digress. If you were to count all the stars in our neighbourhood, the Milky Way, at the rate of 1 per second, it would take you 2500 years just to count the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. That's how big our universe is. Correction, that's how big our KNOWN universe is. There are still parts of the universe we don't know and haven't been able to fathom yet. 

Mu Cephei, one of the biggest stars we've ever found, is 2.7 QUADRILLION times the size of earth. For math retards like myself, this is how much a quadrillion is.

1 million seconds ago = 12 days ago

1 billion seconds ago = May 1975

1 trillion seconds ago = 29,700 B.C

1 quadrillion seconds ago = 30,800,000 years ago

The Bible tells us that God breathes stars like these. That He alone called forth the host of the stars by their name. The biggest star we've found is called Canis Majoris. Check this out: if the earth were a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be the Mount Everest in comparison. That's 7 quadrillion times bigger than earth. That's enough golf balls to fill the entire state of TEXAS in golf balls, 22 inches deep. And that, my friends, is Canis Majoris. 

Yet, the greatest miracle of all lies not in the fact that God is way bigger and more infinitely powerful than we can ever imagine. No, not by a long shot. The greatest miracle is that Jesus, the one whom the Bible tells us in Colossians 1:16, "For through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth," came down to earth to die for you and me. The Star breather, the Universe maker - He became your Saviour.

Life and sin have a way of making our lives, our wants, our needs, our desires the focal point of our being. It amplifies everything about us, while shrinking God down to nice bite-sized pieces. But let's get our perspective right today. God is the huge one, we are the itty-bitty ones who can't get it together. 

We struggle to believe because we cannot see, but we cannot see because we are not really looking.

God is not just out there in the heavens. No, not even just out there as the 38 billion light years across of Universe screams out His name.

The greatest miracle of all is that God is right here, on earth, beside you now. And He loves you far greater than you will ever know. 

The shadows prove the sunshine. 

The echo proves the sound.

The steam proves the heat.

The watermark proves the flood.

The rustling of leaves proves the wind. 

The creation proves the Creator.

The heavens prove His glory.

The Son proves the Father.

The Cross proves His Love.

"ehhh, blog for me leh." (goh, 2008)

yes, again.

and it's evident that i acceded to his request HURHUR but because i'm not at home and i've absolutely no access to my photos (i'm using a different bag today and didn't bring my thumbdrives), this is gonna be a proper blog entry. the real one. the cheem kind that korkor publishes. well, at least i'm gonna try HA

charmaine, cheryl, korkor and i had a filling lunch at blackboard 4hrs ago, and i was thinking (for only the 404234069th time) that i haven't experienced hunger pangs in ages. like waaaay before i even went back to perth. seriously, it's not even funny; i'm constantly stuffing my face with food. that would explain a lot, you may think. HA. but that's not my point.

okaaaay the following paragraphs aren't gonna make much sense, 'cuz i've a myriad of thoughts which i can't seem to string into coherent sentences.

but an hour or so ago, i happened to read matthew 5:6 - "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

in this day and age, how many people can say that they know what it's like to be really hungry, or even thirsty? compare the then and now - a working palestine man consumed meat only once a week, and in palestine the working man and the day laborer often bordered on real hunger and actual starvation.

and more so in the case of thirst. unlike today, where we can turn the tap and get clear water running, the people of ancient days were helpless whenever they experienced sandstorms in the midst of their journeys on foot. all they could do was wrap their heads and turn their backs to the wind while sand filled their throats and nostrils, 'til they were parched and on the brink of suffocation.

back to the verse. we know that Jesus, when he used "hunger" and "thirst", was not referring to the dry\empty feeling we experience before meals. with physical appetite, as i would know, one could still feel hungry\thirsty even after a meal+drink!

i guess what i'm driving at is the frustration i feel, when sometimes this mirrors my spiritual life. how long has it been, since i was last suuuuper hungry? sure, i do my QT every morning and every night, and i pray. yes, i'm always excited when i wake up, to find out what God was going to show me. i constantly want to know more, to learn more. yet sometimes i feel i'm not desperate enough.

i want to say, like the psalmist in 42:1-2, "as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, o God. my soul thirsts for God, for the living God." and in psalm 63:1, "o God, You are my God, earnestly i seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

it seems that i'm always comfortable - physically or spiritually OH NO i don't know where this is going, neither can i phrase my thoughts AND korkor has just returned from his meeting so i gtg!

I was reading with great interest some posts from my distant past. Did you know once upon a time I actually bothered to blog more than once a day. I mean, seriously. Who blogs 3 or 4 times a day.

This morning I helped PJ with the TRAC pastor's fellowship. Which was nice. But we sang a hymn which got me thinking. The said hymn is "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing"

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Am I the only one to wonder what in the world an Ebenezer is?

After some serious Bible study - which I highly recommend for everyone reading - I found out that hey! Ebenezer is the name of a stone. No, really.

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." - 1 Samuel 7:12

Although the naming of the stone and the name merits (in my unprofessional opinion) some mirth, there is great wisdom in what the prophet Samuel did. Besides, Ebenezer should not be scoffed it. It means "the stone of God's help".

It was over 1100 years before Jesus' birth. The people of Israel had conquered much of the Promised Land, but it hadn’t been easy, not by a long shot. The nation was still surrounded by many powerful enemies. In fact, 20 years before 1 Sam 7:12, one of the darkest days in ancient Israel happened. In a single day, Israel not only suffered a terrible military defeat but also lost the Ark of the Covenant to their enemies. The Ark was the symbol of God’s presence among them. This was a national disaster and tragedy worse than 9/11 to them. Israel soon regained the ark. But nothing was ever the same again. The terrible memory of that day would continue to haunt and discourage the nation for a generation.

20 years on, Samuel, the great prophet of Israel, calls a meeting of the nation’s leaders. He tells them that if they want to experience God's blessings, they need to return to their faith in Him. Times had been hard. But things would never improve without God. The entire nation responded positively. At Mizpah, the nation gathered in prayer, but more importantly with faith, to seek God’s blessing. Just at that moment, the Philistine army, enemy of Israel, saw an opportunity to attack while Israel’s warriors were in prayer. But Samuel learns of the treachery. The soldiers ready for battle. The Philistines are turned back in defeat. A great victory for Israel!

Many of us today haven’t come through twenty years of spiritual despair or survived a great, harrowing, military battle. Many of you however, share dark nights and discouraging moments. Moments that sap you of your energy just to think of them. Moments that draw your focus on the problems ahead, on the problems you have now, on the problems you had then.

Today we could all use a memorial like Samuel’s - a memorial to God’s faithfulness. Here we raise our Ebenezer because “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” That’s a reminder we could always use!

Israel didn’t need a memorial to the tough times they had been through. After all, they had lived them. You don’t need a memorial to your loss and grief. Those ancient Israelites weren’t likely to forget the twenty years of discouragement any time soon.

The same goes for us. We don't raise stones or journals or markers to commemorate our losses, our grief, our sorrow. The memories of the hard times are enough for that. But the memories of God's faithfulness also remain with us. That was Samuel’s challenge to Israel. He wanted his people to not only remember what problems and darkness they had already faced. He wanted them never to forget the Lord who had seen them through it.

And that's why I think this line of this glorious hymn is something we should take note of. We should all keep prayer journals or Ebenezer stones of some sort. Because, when the hard times come, as they undoubtedly will (they go too, but that's a "sermon" for another day), what we can use to take us through the disappointment is the memorial to His faithfulness. The Israelites knew what they were doing. They chose not to focus on the issue at hand but on the Infinite Provider of solutions.

So do yourselves a favour. Raise yourselves an Ebenezer. Or many. And as you walk through life, through storms and darkness, look back towards the Ebenezer, and smile. God is with you.