Grace for granted, anyone?

Time for some controversial discussion?
I don't strive to be controversial for the sake of it.
I just believe that whenever a piece of Truth is revealed to me and expounded in me, it is so hard for me to hold back and not be radical about it.
Honestly, if we aren't radical about God's truths - they are ONLY good enough to be just another piece of "interesting information".

After the Cross, Jesus cried out; "It is FINISHED." My G-friend, Noel pointed out something profound. He said, "Jesus didn't say "I am finished", instead He said, "It is Finished."
Unlike the sacrifices that was offered to God in the Old Covenant; the fire would consumed the sacrifice entirely as a sign of acceptance to God. (Leviticus 9:24) And there goes Baaaa....

Though Jesus was scourged by the wrath of God at the Cross for our sake, but the Story did not end there.
Jesus literally went to Hell and back; to take the Key of Hades and overcame the power of Death. And on the third day, He manifested His resurrection power and LIVES!

Those 3 simple words: "It Is Finished" are not just important but powerful for the rest of our sozo-journey in Christ, through Christ and for Christ. Our human nature loves to turn everything to become human-effort. We can't resist the "temptation" of withdrawing our "participation" in achieving a better "Life". Even faith can have the potential to turn to become "work". No doubt, faith produces work but faith itself is not work. It doesn't in anyway requires any "effort" from human part aside from leaning totally on God's efforts/works.
We simply just believe.

The point I am truly driving home is the fact that so many people have erroneous beliefs about "not taking God's grace for granted".

Whenever someone tells us not to take something for granted, it almost often meant that "something" is limited and exhaustible. Hence, we should not take it for granted or it would backfire!

But His grace is so vast and deep and wide and high... no men (human) can truly say they can fathom nor comprehend His grace. The concept of GRACE is what sets Christianity apart from ALL other religions. (not that Christianity is a religion!)
The moment I felt I grasped Grace, He led me to a journey where I experience His grace afresh! The part where I thought I once understood, I felt I have misunderstood - in a non-confusing-refreshing way; experiencing the MUCH MORE! His revelatory love, always NEW.

So how then, how shall we respond to His grace. I love what King David aka the Psalmist said,

"What shall I do to render the benefits (favor) of the Lord?"

His answer:

"I will TAKE up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord".  Psalm 116:12

He is going to TAKE more! He did not decide to stop because He had already enjoyed so much of God's benefits (grace). David loves what he was enjoying and the Person who was blessing him loves to see him enjoying them! So when we TAKE more from Him - the more we TAKE (parTAKE), the more we become...
If there is anything that will "frustrate" His grace, it will be the day when we stop taking and start leaning to our works. Even an ounce of our self-effort can frustrate the grace of God.

"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Galatians 2:21 KJV

Don't ever stop "TAKING" from Him. It's been GRANTED. Through His Blood.

p.s. you are only "taking His grace for granted" when you are not taking...

An invitation to graceChat with moi...

This blog is after all called a "chat". I love "healthy" discussions about the Bible. I would like to invite you to post, comment on any scriptures/topics that you would like to discuss here.
I am not saying I have all the answers - in fact for the last 3 years it was all about learning new stuff and willingness to "unlearn" old stuff.
That's the breadth and the depth of His grace - just when you think you got it - you'll be amazed again!
I subtitled this blog, "the mystery of Grace made simple." it doesn't mean that it is really that simple to comprehend - it is only because of Jesus! He made it simple for us. So simple that in fact, unless you grasped it like a child you won't get it!
That's the power of the Gospel!

Are you ready to graceChat with me now...? :)

The swerves and curves of LIFE...

I was driving to WhiteHills one hot Saturday afternoon. What I predicted to be a only a 20-mins drive dragged out to be 40-mins and that's when I decided to hop out of my car and start hurling for "Help-I-Am-Lost!"

I interrupted some bikers' journey to their very own destination and they downplay my "predicament" by saying 3 simple words: "Just keep going". With those 3 words in mind, I got back into my car and "kept going".

Life is a lot like that - you have some goals and you "vaguely" estimated how long it will take you to achieve those goals. After all, didn't the quote say, "Fail to plan, plan to fail?"
I love organisation. Though I am not the extremists to always have strong urge to know all the "fine prints" of life (maybe my husband would beg to differ!) - but a plan is always a good start.
So you embark on your little journey only to start to wonder, "Am I really on the right track?"
And you hurl out to some random strangers to ask "Do you think I am on the right track?" And well-intent strangers simply reply "Just keep going".
And you kept going and realised even more - now you are drastically lost!

People can only offer good counsel, positive encouragement or moral support. Just in the sheer words of "keep going", they can never really tell you the swerves and curves that encompasses in the "keep going". In most cases, no one counts how many lefts or rights and they don't tell you there will be a sharp corner or landslide in their "keep going" advice.
No one can prepare us for the "swerves" and "curves" of life.
But only Jesus can meet us there.

I have experienced countless of His Grace and Mercies in all my "swerves" and "curves" of life.
The bible said, ""My grace is sufficient for you, for my POWER has been made perfect in weakness" 2 Corinthians 12:9

the swervy road of LIFE

How comforting are those words? No one can ever say that to us - and even if they do we can't trust them fully. But Jesus - He is trustworthy.

We faced some "sharp corners" last weekend. I had a miscarriage and we had to face the trauma of a child-loss. The most traumatic part was - not even knowing I was pregnant at the first place. This "swerve and curve in life" caused us to ask many questions - questions that will birth more frustrations and confusions.

Alas, I saw another facet of His grace - "Life was not meant to be understood, it is meant to TRUST.

To keep trusting an all faithful God, whose plans and purposes far exceed our "little map of goals in life." His plans are good and not of evil, His plans to PROSPER and to give us a HOPE and a FUTURE.

I feel I can finally hand it over to Him, to have the grace to say "See you again my baby" at that "swervy" spot and "keep going".

And now, it's your turn.
Why don't you "keep going" and most importantly "keep trusting"...

"Sarah"

The child within
Destined to reign
In another realm

His love so sure
His grace so deep

Though short and brief
You didn't stay long
Our hope secure
You're safe in Jesus embrace

We will always remember you, our lil' Princess!

In loving Memory of Our Baby Lost On 11 March 2012

8 = New Beginnings

I was inspired to write this post when my dear friend drove past 8 cows grazing on the property of our Church on Monday the 5th. It was not just the cows that surprised me but the "number" of cows that were there...

The 8 Cows found randomly on our Church property

While number 7 means Perfection, a full cycle or Completion; number 8 marked New Beginnings. I love biblical numerology - maybe it's because of my background and culture; the Chinese finds great meanings through numbers!


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become NEW." (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV)

You see, it's easy to associate "new beginnings" with new venture, new plans, all the "external" stuff - all those it's easy to get. But i believe it is just as important to wave goodbye to the "former things" as to embracing the new; INTERNALLY. So what are the old things you asked? One thing I love - is how we can allow the Bible to interpret the Bible. When Paul talks about the old things in the Book Of Corinthians, the Apostle John spells out specifically what the former things are in the book of Revelation chapter 21:

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4 (NKJV)

 And the best bit, 

"Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things NEW.”

That should be the fundamental reason why we should feel ALIVE each time we wake up in the morning. The very moment we accepted the very Person of Jesus into our heart; we became NEW. This newness is much more than we can ever comprehend. This NEWNESS regardless of our feelings have more impact to our body, soul and spirit than we can ever fathom! WE ARE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST AND THROUGH CHRIST!
For the old has passed away or gone or dissapeared or vanished - and BEHOLD WE ARE NEW.


How often do we acknowledge the NEWNESS in ourselves? And in others?  For it takes FAITH to tune our mind into that zone. 
That verse plainly says that; henceforth, I refused to see MYSELF in the natural. And I refused to see YOU who are in Christ in the natural. 


Have you ever been in a noisy place for a period of time? Say in a busy and massive construction place; the whirring of machines caused the dins in the atmosphere. And you slowly walked away and the noise diminishes, bit by bit but somehow you are still able to hear it in your HEAD?
This is like, the old man has gone but the old thinking is still there. That's why the Apostle Paul kept reminding us that we no longer dwell in the flesh but in the Spirit.


Former things that was spelled out in Revelation means death, sorrow (depression) and cry (pain). Wow - the next time we feel like dying, depressed or experiencing pain in any kind, we need to be reminded that those are the FORMER THINGS THAT HAVE ALREADY VANISHED! 


My friends, you no longer need to face nor battle with your former things (death, depression, pain) any more, (yes that includes aging!) because Jesus has already taken them from us. How great is our GOD!


I prayed that your days will be filled with you EXPERIENCING the NEWNESS in CHRIST. If they are not then start feeling NEW.


I have jumped into the bandwagon of "New Beginnings", will we encourage (put courage) in each other to stay there?

Simple does not mean Dumb

For the last few years, since the Grace Revolution hit me - God had blessed me with deep and meaningful friendships. Friends that i might have known for awhile but because of the grace message, even the friendship gets "revolutionised"! Or friends that I might not even have known for a long time but the connection is deep and strong. I call them my graceFriends or my G-friends.


Something that I found in most of my graceFriends have in common are: SIMPLICITY and an aura of LIGHTNESS within them.
The world would sometimes translate "simplicity" as being plain or dull or dumb but as Kathie Walter quoted, "The most spiritual people are the LIGHTEST!"


While K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid!) does not sound very "gracious" - but it does carry an important undertone to Life. It is so important to keep things light and easy. While on the surface - the world seem to exalt "complexity" and equates it to KNOWLEDGE in higher capacity - in the hearts of men, most people repels at the introduction of something that alerts "complication"! (I am wired like that anyway!)


No wonder some of the most powerful statement only contains 3 simple words co-joined: I Love You or I Forgive You.


"... for His yoke is easy and His burden is light". Matthew 11:30


Are you a "SIMPLE" person...?

"Prosper as our soul Prospers"

Soul Prosperity

"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." 3 John 1:2

Many of us understood that our soul comprises of our mind, will and emotions. Here at the very end of the Apostle John's age, he summed up his heartfelt desire is to see Gaius prosper, in which the book of Third John was a private letter written to him (Gaius).

Try reading the verse again. And highlight "you may prosper in ALL things and be in health, JUST AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS." Try again. "prosper in all things..... just as your soul prospers." Now pause.

Does that shed some light? We can not be prosperous beyond  the prosperity of our soul; which is our mind, will and emotions. Long before the manifestation of any physical prosperity i.e. our finance, our relationships, our investments; our SOUL needs to prosper FIRST AND FOREMOST!

Which in other words shows us that the Devil can not rob the money in our bank but he can definitely rob our peace and joy (which live in our soul!). Think about it.
The next time you face a "storm" - maybe the best place to stay is to guard our heart (soul). For we will only prosper according to our soul... not the other way round. Shalom.

Deep & Light

I told myself I would use 2012 to resurrect my passion in writing.
So here comes a NEW blog from me - that has been procrastinated and labelled with vast excuses through the years.


graceChats were originally "founded and named" by me when I was running a major event in Church almost 2 years ago and working with my dear friend cum neighbour Rebekah Bye; we found ourselves chatting about Jesus from the Grace aspect, dialoging back and forth via WhatsApp at the most "godly" hour of the day: 5 am-ish.


I have been meaning to blog all the "grace-nuggets" for years - so this is the year!
To sit down at least 5 mins a day (or more if I have the inspiration and opportunity) to type out what struck me in the course of my day.
It could be a song I woke up with, a verse that randomly popped up or a situation I faced or someone's story that came to my attention and God shedding His light into it...

Deep & Light

Some could be pretty basics.
Some could be deep.
Some could need a bit of "bouncing back and forth" with you. (It is called a "chat" after all)
But the intent of the "chat" is to leave us all feeling "light" at the end of the blog.


Are you a deep and light person...?