all ready for minilutions!


Once upon a time, in the land of Uz, there lived a man whose name was Job. He was an extremely pious man, “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”, habitually offering burnt offerings as a pardon for the sins of his sons and daughters.

One day, God asks Satan of his opinion of Job, an apparently pious man. Satan (which means “the accuser” or “the adversary” in Hebrew) replied that Job was pious only because of his prosperity. God hence gave Satan permission to strike Job with calamity to test his piety. Consequently, Job lost his possessions and family and was inflicted with boils.

I think Job is the true epitome of what “With Christ in the vessel we can smile in the storm” means! Even when he is racked with pain and misery, and when all his friends and his wife tell him to “curse God, and die”, he does not, replying instead, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Very often we fall into the trap of being fair weather Christians – we revel in and accept God when He showers us with blessings. But once we meet small setbacks in our walk with Christ, our first reaction are often to complain or to stop in our tracks or retreat from this setback.

Though Job was severely afflicted, he never once complained against God. He really set an example for us in faith and piety – in turn, we should ask ourselves: To what extent will we defend God’s word and our identity in Him? When our worldly possessions are stripped away, will we still continue to serve Him?

Sometimes we hear people say, I will serve God when I have more time/money etc. but well, serving God should not depend on the approval of our worldly circumstances! As the Creator he has freedom of control over his creation; God does not require our approval. Yet he allows us to make our own choices. So yup, make the right choice!

In his period of testing, only three friends visited him: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. They argued that Job must have sinned and therefore must deserve his misfortune.

This argument is based on the theological assumption that God always rewards good and punishes evil with no apparent exceptions allowed. In other words, in the view of theology, God awards karmic points. But no, this is not true! We must not forget that God’s ways are higher and more mysterious ways than ours; we cannot use human measurements of justice to perceive them.

This happens because the three friends have forgotten God’s sovereignty, righteousness and gracious mercy. They use their own human reasoning to “reason” out Job’s “just” or “deserving” punishment for his wrongdoings, misrepresenting God’s righteousness and discrediting his loving character – as Job says, “how can a mortal be righteous before God?” – God sees all our misdoings and flaws; if God was really an “eye-for-an-eye” God, then all of us, being sinners, should be inflicted with calamities throughout our lives. Instead, God chooses to forgive us and shower us with blessings out of love. [1 Corin 13:5].

In the end, Job is restored to health, wealth (with double the riches of before), and familial bliss. He has 7 sons and 3 daughters (who are the most beautiful of the land), and lives another 140 years to see his children to the 4th generation before dying peacefully at an old age. So yup! In Job we see the example of how a child of God could remain so faithful to God despite his circumstances (which are so much more severe than the mild setbacks we face in life today!) and how, through his faith, he persevered to experience God’s happy ending for him.

So whenever you meet downturns in your life, think of this victorious story of Job and know that, with faith, God’s unique happy ending for you will come true! :)

Hey all! The hero for today is NOAH. I’m sure we have all heard of the story of Noah’s Ark, but let’s study this in depth today! The main thing that we have to learn from this hero is OBEDIENCE and FAITH.

For those who are not so familiar with Noah’s story, you can refer to [Genesis 6 – 9] for more information! In Genesis 6, God was grieved because of the evilness of mankind on Earth, and He decided to wipe mankind away from the face of the earth. However, there was one man on earth whom found favor with God and that man was Noah. God wanted to bring floodwaters on earth to destroy all life. But He commanded Noah to build an ark for him and his family, and also for two of every living creature. God gave complicated instructions for Noah to follow but in the Bible it was simply said, “Noah did everything just as God commanded him”. [Genesis 6:22]

The following are some of the lessons I think we should learn from Noah:

1) Noah displayed great obedience by completing the difficult task of building the ark. [Gen 6:14,22] God gave comprehensive instructions to follow. Noah even had to bring two of every living animal up onto the ark with him. This idea of building an ark must seemed to be very ridiculous for the people of that time. However, Noah simply responded by faithfully following every instruction and completing the task, which demonstrated the great amount of obedience he had towards God. Never once did Noah complain to God nor did he question God. He simply did what God commanded him. I believe many of us have doubted or questioned what God has asked us to do. It is hard to respond like Noah –without doubting nor questioning.

2) Noah demonstrated great faith even in an unbelieving world. In [Gen 6:5] it is said, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Even though the world was unbelieving, Noah still stood out as a man with great faith and absolute obedience towards God. This is the Bible’s account of Noah, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” In our lives, we face many temptations and distractions too, people around us may discourage us from our walk with God. Despite Noah being in such a world, he knew that he could always choose to right with God. I really encourage you to choose to be a Noah in your world today too. Let God’s account of you be the same, to be “righteous”, “blameless” and always “walking with God”.

3) Obedience is a long-term commitment. Obedience is not saying “Yes” to God, and then turning away to do our own things. It is saying “Yes” to God and following it through with actions, taking a commitment to fulfill what we have promised to obey God in the first place. Imagine if Noah had said “Yes” to God yet didn’t follow God’s every instruction, or even worse, didn’t fulfill what he said. The results would be rather disastrous. The building of the ark was a long project that Noah kept to till the end. What are the arks that God is commanding us to build in our lives? Are we following it through with long-term commitment?

If you refer to the picture at the beginning of the post, you can see a rainbow in the picture. This represents God’s covenant with us. This is what God said in [Gen 9:13-15], “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” Let this also be a reminder to us of the importance of being obedient to God in our lives! God is faithful and will be gracious to deliver those who obey Him in faith.

Think of the areas in our lives that requires obedience from us towards God. As it is said, partial obedience is not obedience. Do ponder carefully over these areas and commit these areas to God once again.

And whenever we see a rainbow, do also remember to whisper a simple prayer to God (: Thanks for persevering till the end!

Love,
Sharlene (:


Today’s hero-in-discussion would be Jonathan. Jonathan is a small, insignificant character in the Bible I would say (as compared to Saul and David), so he is the calefare in the book of 1 Samuel. However, though having a small role in the bible, Jonathan has provided us with a BIG lesson to learn from – DARE TO BELIEVE.



In 1 Samuel chapter 13 to 14, Jonathan exercised his faith for God without much hesitation. This happened when Israel were fighting the Philistines, but were without weapons. In 1 Samuel 13:22, it says, “So on the day of battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and Jonathan had them.”

Imagine this with me, you are leading a troop to war, but the thing is none in the troop that you are leading is carrying any weapon. What would come to your mind straightaway?

My natural instinct would tell me this, “Hey dude, fighting this war is a lost cause! Retreat or die!” Fear would come to my mind; surrendering would be the first option on my list and fighting the Philistines head on last, definitely. Normal you may say, but Jonathan did the otherwise. In Samuel 14:1 it says, “One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father.”

At this moment, you may want to rub your eyes and look at 1 Samuel 14:1 again. However, let me assure you that your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Yes, Jonathan went to the Philistine outpost! You must be thinking, “Wow, this guy is crazy!” But read on, he is crazier than you think. He went to the Philistine outpost not with 500 men, but with 1 man – his armor-bearer. Full stop, that’s all. 2 men waiting to infiltrate the Philistine camp that was filled with troops, maybe hundreds of them, or even thousands of them. How can 2 fight against a thousand men? Some of you may say this guy is really out of his mind. Naïve, stupid, irrational… (The list goes on) But one thing I assure you, Jonathan is crazy, but he is crazy for God.

In 1 Samuel 14:6, Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.” Back then, faced with the dire circumstances, Jonathan was unfazed. He trusted in God, and he DARED TO BELIEVE IN GOD, even in unfavorable situation. In the end, this faith of Jonathan was rewarded by God. In 1 Samuel 14:15 it says, “Then panic struck the whole army… It was a panic sent by God.” Later on in 1 Samuel 14:20 it mentions, “The Philistines in total confusion, striking each other with their swords.” Yes, 2 men certainly can’t defeat a thousand. But ONE GOD is more than enough to strike down a thousand, or even hundreds of thousands!

How did Jonathan manage to dispel the distractions of his heart and mind and put his belief in God? He simply KNOW WHO GOD IS and KNOW WHAT GOD IS CAPABLE OF!

Most of the times, when faced with problems, our natural instinct will tell us to turn to people or objects around us, and attempt to solve the problem ourselves. We tend to focus too much on the problem, and in the process magnify it. We lose sight of God, who is much greater than the problem. We forget WHO GOD REALLY IS and WHAT GOD IS REALLY CAPABLE OF, and this is in fact the real source of problem.

Jonathan approached the problem differently. He knew who God is as well as the power of God. By doing so, Jonathan was armed with the confidence of God. He was able to take the ‘big’ problem in his stride, with courage, because he knew that God would deliver him, regardless of how bad the circumstances were, simply because, OUR GREAT GOD IS DEFINITELY BIGGER THAN OUR PROBLEMS.

Therefore, next time when we are faced with a problem, let us take a step back to remind ourselves of who God is and what is He really capable of. In times of trouble, let us be like Jonathan, DARE TO BELIEVE in God, knowing that God will deliver us. For “Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few”, and “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)