More Than Conquerors

20 April 2008

We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works

Thank God for another opportunity today to join in public worship and to fellowship with my church friends. This is a joy and privilege which I cherish very much.

This morning I heard a very encouraging message from Ephesians 2:

Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

We were reminded that salvation is all of grace and not of our works. It is the Lord Jesus Christ Who saved us from our sins. It is His Works on the cross in laying down His life for us that saved us. We are not saved by our good works or even our faith. Our salvation is solely a gift of God. Faith is the medium that we received this grace of salvation. Although good works cannot save us, we are saved in order to do good works as an instrument of God. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Sometimes the care of this world and physical infirmities or mental struggles clouded me of my calling here. But this morning, I am reminded afresh through God's Words in Ephesians 2:8-10 that salvation is all of grace and not of works lest any man should boast. We cannot rely on good works to earn salvation as it is Christ alone that save us. But although good works cannot save us us, we are saved in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

We are saved to serve the Lord. May God enable me to present my body a living sacrifice unto God to live for Him and serve Him. Daily many things will demand my attention and energy, but may God help me to set my heart and affection on things above and to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness in all that I do.

Thank you once again for all your prayers and encouragements. Thank God for His mercies to me. I am learning daily to walk with our Lord, to find much joy and strength in Him despite whatever struggles I face or whatever physical or mental infirmities I have, and to serve God in little little ways. I look forward to the day when the Lord will call me home to my eternal rest where I can enjoy His love, worship and fellowship without the hindrance of sins, sicknesses, mental illness, etc etc. Until then I am comforted that His grace is sufficient for me and He will guide me along as I learn to look to Him. I pray for His grace to keep my eyes upon Him and not let the rough ways or storms to distract me.

Life will have many challenges and we will have our portion of ups and downs, joy and sorrows, success and failures, etc etc. May the Lord enable us to know more and more of His love, mercies and faithfulness through them. May He continue to sanctify us through the trials in our lives and make us more useful in the extension of His kingdom, to share His Gospel with others by word of our mouth as well as through our lives.

How blessed to belong to the Lord! He is our hope here and for all eternity. May His joy continue to be our strength daily for He has promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us. No matter what we go through in this life, His grace is sufficient for us. Praise Him!

Another card from my collection :-)

19 April 2008

Chinese Video of Nick Vujicic's testimony

I found this very encouraging Chinese Video of Nick Vujicic's testimony. It has his testimony written in Chinese and many of his photos. It is also accompanied by a very beautiful Christian song in Cantonese.

This video is posted by leejiazhong on YouTube:

18 April 2008

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries : Victory in God's grace, the story of Nick Vujicic

My blogging friend, Michelle, shared on her blog a very touching and encouraging video on a young man called Nick Vujicic. Nick was born with no arms or legs yet he is trusting in the Lord daily and living a life that is not only as normal as he can, but he is also doing many wonderful things too by the mercies and power of God.

It brought tears to my eyes when I saw Nick's condition and his faith in God. Praise God for sustaining him and enabling him to testify of His sufficient grace.

I found this video posted on YouTube. This video shows Nick in his daily life, overcoming difficulties and managing daily activities and it ends with a moving sharing from him on God's sufficient grace. It is such an encouragement to remember afresh that no matter what we have to go through in this life, God's grace is sufficient for us. Nothing happens in our life by accident or chance. God won't let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. And He is manifesting forth His glory and mercies in sustaining and strengthening us.

Do watch this encouraging video and then read comment below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0oRBKbRYnY

These are the comments from one viewer:

"Nick has no limbs and no arms. Yet he preaches the love of God every where. Why?"

I came to know Nick Vujicic from an email about a year ago. Recently I received another email about himself. I have never met him but we are one in the body of Christ. So I think it is good to share this blessing to the world through Youtube.

Quote

Think this guy might have a message to give?

"My name is Nick Vujicic and I give God the Glory for how He has used my testimony to touch thousands of hearts around the world! I was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth 'defect'. As you can imagine, I was faced with many challenges and obstacles.

'Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.'

.... To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy? As my parents were Christians, and my Dad even a Pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the 4th of December 1982 in Melbourne Australia, the last two words on the minds of my parents was 'Praise God!'. Their firstborn son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it. The doctors were shocked and had no answers at all! There is still no medical reason why this had happened and Nick now has a Brother and Sister who were born just like any other baby.

The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. Everyone asked, 'if God is a God of Love, then why would God let something this bad happen to not just anyone, but dedicated Christians?' My Dad thought I wouldn't survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy just with a few limbs missing.

'And we know that in all things God works for the best for those who love Him.' That verse spoke to my heart and convicted me to the point where that I know that there is no such thing as luck, chance or coincidence that these 'bad' things happen in our life.

I had complete peace knowing that God won't let anything happen to us in our life unless He has a good purpose for it all. I completely gave my life to Christ at the age of fifteen after reading John 9. Jesus said that the reason the man was born blind was 'so that the works of God may be revealed through Him.' I truly believed that God would heal me so I could be a great testimony of His Awesome Power. Later on I was given the wisdom to understand that if we pray for something, if it's God's will, it'll happen in His time. If it's not God's will for it to happen, then I know that He has something better.

I now see that Glory revealed as He is using me just the way I am and in ways others can't be used.

I am now twenty-three years old and have completed a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Financial Planning and Accounting. I am also a motivational speaker and love to go out and share my story and testimony wherever opportunities become available. I have developed talks to relate to and encourage students through topics that challenge today's teenagers. I am also a speaker in the corporate sector.

I have a passion for reaching out to youth and keep myself available for whatever God wants me to do, and wherever He leads, I follow.

I have many dreams and goals that I have set to achieve in my life.

I want to become the best witness I can be of God's Love and Hope, to become an international inspirational speaker and be used as a vessel in both Christian and non-Christian venues. I want to become financially independent by the age of 25, through real estate investments, to modify a car for me to drive and to be interviewed and share my story on the ' Oprah Winfrey Show '! Writing several best-selling books has been one of my dreams and I hope to finish writing my first by the end of the year. It will be called 'No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!'?

I believe that if you have the desire and passion to do something, and if it's God's will, you will achieve it in good time. As humans, we continually put limits on ourselves for no reason at all! What's worse is putting limits on God who can do all things. We put God in a 'box'. The awesome thing about the Power of God, is that if we want to do something for God, instead of focusing on our capability, concentrate on our availability for we know that it is God through us and we can't do anything without Him. Once we make ourselves available for God's work, guess whose capabilities we rely on? God's!

May the Lord Bless you
In Christ,
Nick Vujicic

'Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be UNDERSTOOD'

Unquote

John 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind.

John 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Cross-stitch - Another of my Therapeutic Hobby

I am in the midst of doing a cross-stitch for a dear friend. This little bear with a heart cross-stitch is one of my favourite. It is very sweet and quite easy to do.

I will sew some Bible verses besides the bear and frame it up.

I have done this cross-stitch for several of my friends and they like it very much.

I find it therapeutic to do things for others. It makes me very happy to see others happy.

Having some form of hobbies can be very enjoyable and relaxing too. It helps to slow me down at times as my thoughts will be racing otherwise :-)

My dear friend, Michelle and her husband, also love to do cross-stitch. Their cross-stitch are very beautiful. Do visit Michelle's blog at Ozarks sew n' sews to see their lovely handiworks.

So far I have benefited from the following hobbies besides cross-stitch:

1) Photography. I enjoy photography very very much. I am thrilled to be able to capture some of the beauties in God's creations. It is helping me to enjoy God's creations in many wonderful ways. In the past, I have been too busy to enjoy walks, flowers, beach, etc etc. Now I am discovering these through the lenses of my camera :-)

2) Making Bookmarks. I enjoy making Bookmarks for my friends. I used my photos and photos taken by my brother and friends, to make these bookmarks. If you are interested in making bookmarks, you can check out my Homemade Bookmarks Blog to download Free Bookmarks Templates and instructions on how to make simple bookmarks.

3) Making Crafts and Gifts. Besides making bookmarks, I also enjoyed cross-stitch, making simple calendars and origami. Check out my Homemade Crafts and Gifts if you are also interested in making these crafts and gifts.

Making these crafts and gifts give me great joy and satisfaction. Thank God for the joy of sharing these gifts with my friends, and the joy of serving Him in this way.

What about you? Do you have any hobbies that you really enjoy?

Free Calendars 2010 and Free Planners 2010 Resources:

Free Bookmarks Resources:

Free Cards Resources:

Free Handicrafts Resources : Free Cross-stitch

Free Sewing Resources : Knitting

Free Origami Resources:

Free Arts and Crafts for Kids Resources:

Nice Piano Instrumental Music Resources:

16 April 2008

Thankful Thursday

For more participants of Thankful Thursday, visit Iris at Sting My Heart.

Yesterday, I participated in my first Word-Filled Wednesday. It's a very wonderful experience~ I am greatly encouraged to read of so many precious portions of God's Words and how these have encouraged various people in different stages of their life. Truly, we do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God! And the photos are all so beautiful. Do visit Amy at The 160 Acre Woods for a list of people participating on Word-Filled Wednesday and read these encouraging verses and see the lovely photos.

Today, I am participating in my first Thankful Thursday :-)

I have so many things to be thankful for daily that I thought it's good for me to start putting them down every Thursday otherwise I will forget. It's good to count our blessings daily and to remember that God is working all things for His glory and our good, and the good of His church. God is gracious to me though I am a forgetful person. I realized that even in very difficult, painful and dark days, we can find something to thank God for because He is our Redeemer and our God. His love and mercies is from everlasting to everlasting, and underneath us is His everlasting arms.

The last few weeks have been very tiring, stressful and busy weeks for me. I have many things to thank God for.

1. I thank God for giving me grace to know Him, love Him, walk with Him and serve Him. Knowing God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the best thing that has happened to me in this life and it is still the best thing that is happening to me daily. Thank God for saving me from my sins and giving me a new life in Christ.

2. I thank God for the joy of worship and fellowship last Lord's day. It is always refreshing to be in the house of God to participate in public worship together with God's people and to enjoy their fellowship.

3. I thank God for giving me strength and wisdom to cope with the challenges daily. There have been many challenges over the last few weeks and I will not have the strength to cope if not for the Lord's strengthening me day by day. I often feel very tired and weak but thank God for sustaining me daily. I have found that God's grace is sufficient for me each day as He has promised! Thank and praise Him!

4. I thank God for giving me joy in Him despite physical tiredness and mental stress. My flesh and my heart fail me at times, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. In Christ, I am able to rejoice daily and accept all things as from His loving hands.

5. I thank God for enabling me to complete 2 freelance assignments on time. Thank God for wisdom and strength to do my best for these freelance job assignments. One of my customer gave a very kind and encouraging comment to acknowledge her appreciation of my work. I am so encouraged by God's goodness in helping me to do a good job.

6. I thank God for providing more freelance job assignments for me. Thanks to those of you who have been praying for me. Thank God for His faithfulness in hearing and answering our prayers. I have just been given new freelance assignments! Truly, the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not want (lack). He provides for our every need. Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragements!

7. I thank God for family and friends who love, accept and care for me in big ways and little little ways. These mean a lot to me. I thank God for all of them, and they are tokens of God's love for me.

8. I thank God for all of you, my dear blogging friends. It is such a joy and privilege to know all of you and to be able to share our experiences and encourage one another through our blogs. I have never expected this when I first started my blog in February 2008. This has been one of the best experience I ever have in making online friends. You are tokens of God's love for me too and I am greatly encouraged. Thank you once again for being my friends and for being such a blessing and encouragement to me. May God bless all of you abundantly!

I pray that God will give me a thankful heart daily no matter what I am going through. I am a pilgrim here, sojourning on a pilgrim journey towards the celestial city. I pray that God will enable me to set my heart and affection on things above and not on things below here. I pray that I may be able to serve God and glorify Him here, and be used of Him as an instrument to draw sinners to know His saving grace and be an encouragement to fellow Christians who are precious in God's sight and redeemed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this life, I may face many different and difficult challenges, my bipolar may also give problem through manic or depression. But God's love remains unchanging and His grace is sufficient for me. He is lovingly working all things for His glory and my good, and the good of His church. I pray that He may give me a thankful heart always so that I can praise Him in all circumstances.

How about you? How has the Lord blessed and helped you through the past week? What are the things you are thankful for? We serve such a great God. Let us unite our hearts in thanksgiving to such a loving and faithful Saviour Who never leave us nor forsake us, and nothing shall ever separate us from His love.

All praise and glory be to God!