Above all else

Kids were boogieing to this song for a couple of days - "Bow chicka bow wow, that's what my baby says, mow mow mow and my heart starts pumpin". We just HAD to hear it for ourselves. And found it on youtube of course... Enjoy :)

We were recently in Penang for the weekend, and managed to catch Robert Zemeckis' Christmas Carol. It is quite a disturbing Christmas Carol, with a number of scary images (it opens with the image of Jacob Marley dead in his coffin with coins over his eyes!), so it's not a kids show by any stretch of the imagination. My kids were noticeably sober when we got out, 3D glasses notwithstanding, and frankly so was I! Anyway, the familiar lessons of the Christmas Carol story continue to be thought provoking today. One particularly stuck in my mind - perhaps because it was the most disturbing! Ebenezer Scrooge's first encounter of Christmas Eve is with the ghost of Jacob Marley, his former business partner. Jacob Marley is bound with heavy chains to his moneyboxes, which he is cursed to haul around. The conversation Jacob Marley has with Scrooge is quite illuminating. ==================== Jacob Marley: I wear the chain I forged in life! I made it link by link and yard by yard! I ga...

It’s coming up to Christmas time, and as usual, this includes some kind of Christmas event for the church. Thanks to my pastor’s prodding (which I am very grateful for – if there was no one to keep me accountable, I’d never get around to being the Christian I should be), I finally invited a bunch of people I know. Sending out the invitation was quite scary, because of the “face” issue – you know, you don’t want people to think you’re weird. So when I finally grit my teeth and send out the invitation, I felt rather proud of myself. The next day (Saturday), I brought the kids to badminton training, and as per my usual routine, I went for a run while waiting for the class to finish. As I was sitting under the shade and sipping my ice Milo after my run, it suddenly struck me that I was incredibly blessed. Here I was, with the capacity to bring my kids out, get in my own exercise and enjoy a cool drink on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I thought that if the Apostle Paul could see me now, and c...

As part of our church prayer meeting yesterday, we prayed through Eph 6:14-18 – putting on the armour of God. As we were praying I was thinking about the meaning behind the analogy to armour. So here are some thoughts about the armour of God. I wondered about the “belt of truth” for a while. Why associate truth with a belt? I think I understand – what’s a belt for? To hold up your pants. And what if your pants fall? You are ashamed. And that is the essence of living in TRUTH. If we live in truth, we will never be put to shame by hidden secrets or sin. So confess our sins and live with transparency, integrity and truth, and we will never be put to shame. The “breastplate of righteousness” – everyone gets hit in life. But when we walk in righteousness, God’s promise is that this (and not anything else) will defend and protect us from harm. We may be dented, but our bodies will be safe! The “feet fitted with readiness that comes with the gospel of peace” is quite clear. As the song says, ...

I just finished a set of devotionals for November going through the book of 2 Chronicles. One of the important things I learned was through the life of Hezekiah and his children. King Hezekiah of Judah was one of the greatest kings in Judah's history. In 2 Kings 18:3-7 (I also read the book of 2 Kings, which is to a significant extent a parallel record of the events in Chronicles), the Bible records that Hezekiah "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord... Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook." Hezekiah was faithful to God, obedient in following His instructions and he was successful in whatever he did! 2 Kings 18 goes on to describe Hezekiah's great victory against all odds, over Sennacherib, t...

*Nat and Daniel playing and yelling* Natalie: AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH Daniel: OOOIII!! Don't scream in my ear, or my ears will blow up OK? Natalie: Never mind what. Then your ears will just be like Daddy. Sigh.