Mid-sem To-Do list

• Get plenty of quiet time in. Hope to get alot of progress with Romans, and chat with God heaps. Oh, and finish off BSF.
• YF prep
• Catch up on the lectures that I missed (I think about 18hrs in total :P)
• Start and (nearly) finish 2 SLAT assignments
• Get some chores done - eg., clean my messy room
• Catch up with friends (if my health permits)
• Play lots of baddy (if my health permits)
• Apply for Summer work - work experience and retail jobs.

After typing that list...I realise it's a fair bit... arghh... see how much of it gets done. :)

Cont (2) (see previous post)

"A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?" says the LORD Almighty" (Mal 1:6).

The next chunk of verses tell of how the priests sacrificed "crippled or diseased animals" to God. God is displeased as "He is a great king", and demands the best from His people in sacrifice to Him.

How often do I make a promise to God that I will give this to God, but then I either do not give it to God at all, or make a compromise, doing an asian bargaining thing with God: God, how about I give this instead (a smaller amount, or if it's something that I promised that I would do, how about I do it later, and do something else altogether). But surely, if He is a "great king...and [his name] is to be feared" (Mal 1: 14), where is His honour? It saddens me that I often don't treat Him as King, and instead, treat Him as my servant - sigh. Malachi is a good reminder to me that He is God Almighty, so I better treat Him and fear Him as God Almighty.

I'm really interested in this Book, and there are alot of things I don't understand:

1. So what actually happened to Edom?
2. When the "dreadful day" is described in 4:1-6, and "judgment" in 3: 1-5) is it referring to the Lord's first or second coming, or both?

Malachi intrigues me! :)

In FEAR and in AWE (1)

I was reading Malachi today, and this Book reminded me to fear and be in awe of our God Almighty - praise God! Here's a few reasons that triggered this reminder:

"I (ie. God) have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated" (Mal 1: 2,3). My first reaction is: what has Esau done to deserve to be 'hated', and what has Jacob done to be loved? I flip to Genesis, and Jacob seems to be the devious & mischevious one. After Esau's hard work he is famished and asks Jacob for his stew. But Jacob is the one that takes advantage of Esau's starving state and makes a deal with Esau to exchange stew with birthright (Gen 25: 29-34). Later, Jacob lies and misleads in order to take Esau's blessing from his father (Gen 27). It's illogical - shouldn't Jacob be the one "hated", and Esau, the one "loved" by God? Doesn't this passage refute the claim that God is love?

But, perhaps, it's not a matter of what Esau and Jacob has done. Perhaps it's not a matter of man's desire or effort. Rather, it may be about God's sovereign choice and mercy (Ro 9: 10-16ish). That He, because He is God - the God Almighty, gets to choose whom He should have compassion with, and whom He should have mercy on. Because He is the Great God, He gets to choose who are His people, and He gets to choose whose land He will destroy (in this case, Esau's: see Mal 1:3-5ish). Knowing how holy and sovereign God is, made me: wow...

(For better readability I'm going to post (2) in the next post) :)

UF camp

I'm back from UF camp - it was great!

Although I came into the camp with a very bad attitude (being extremely tired, grumpy, self-centred, withdrawn), God reminded me of His amazing attributes: that He is a compassionate, just, loving, forgiving, great, providing and an awesomelypeaceful God. Isn't it just an amazing blessing that by knowing that God is who He is (encompassing all these great and more attributes), we can be confident that He will always act in line with His holy character. For example, by knowing that God is a God who provides, we can live our life each day knowing that He will provide for our daily needs. :D :D

I was also reminded to allow Him to take up His throne of my heart. A struggle that I constantly face is that I allow myself and my desires to take up the throne of my heart, and by so doing, kick God of His rightful place. Those desires at their may not be bad, even good. But the problem is when it becomes an idol, and competes for my passion that should be for God alone.

Great camp, overall!

Xie xie ni

YES. Got those 2 assignments done and handed in on time on Friday - thank you, God! God's been showing me again and again that He really does provide for me, whether in big or small ways. And ALL the time I don't deserve this providence at all. It really does reflect God's graciousness. It did take an all-nighter, though. It was REALLY strange seeing the sun rise up... And on Friday it was really strange...that a day had passed without sleep. :O

Pretty cool experience, but not really keen to experience it again. :P

So after coming back from UF camp, I've been paying back my sleep debt with interest. :D Around 26 hrs over the two nights. :D

1:26am

It's going to be a long night...these 2 assignments are really eye-balling me...

...but when I am weak He is strong. :)

Extension!

Yeah...my SLAT lecturer just decided to give us an extension for our assignment originally due tomorrow! It's now due on Friday! Ohh yeaaaaaaaa, PTL!

Extensions: I like!