A day of refreshment

I absolutely love the once in a fortnight Sundays. The day is just dedicated to rest and relaxation, really helps to recharge my batteries and just give me a peace of mind for a day.

I woke up close to 10 today, had the aircon at full blast at 22 degrees in my room. My brother woke up just about a minute after me and commented how cold my room was. Well, it was Dad's idea to "make the room colder". I just forgot to increase the temperature before I went to sleep.

Since it was already 10 plus by the time I had breakfast and read the papers, I just decided to change and get ready for Church.

At Church

Surprisingly, I did not have that "gloomy feeling" that hovers heavily over me before heading to Church today. I had a sense of expectancy and excitement to go to Church. I can only say that it is one of those few rare days where I'm "in the mood" to go to Church.

The Praise was just good, nothing special or excellent. For Worship, We sang a new song, "Blessed". I must say that every song that Hillsongs uses as the name for its album tends to be a very good song. "For this Cause", "Touching Heaven, Changing Earth" are no different from "Blessed". They're like an instantly likeable song that I would enjoy singing in Church.

Pastor preached about the valleys of life. Once again, he was focusing on the area of disappointments in a person's life and how to look from it at David's point of view. They key verse was Psalm 23, the one always used for obituaries and funerals.

Pastor revealed to us the attitudes and information that we could "extract" from the Psalm. Most of the things covered were things that the long time Christians knew already. Service ended in a prayer that I can't remember what we said. Sigh. A key thing I learnt was that God actually helps me to fight my battles, protects me from the snares of the devil and helps me when I'm in trouble.

God is truly the lifter of my head. He cares so unbelievably much about me.

The only thing that really really really REALLY stood out was just a short one liner that Dr. Kong said towards the end of the whole service. He said something that just hit me so hard,

"When you are in the valley of the shadow of death, it is then when you can unleash your most POWERFUL weapon as a Christian, the SACRIFICE OF PRAISE"

Although I can't remember everything about this, this one line was enough. Perhaps I will be able to fight a little bit stronger in the Spirit and resist the devil. The book, "The Power of Praise and Worship" by Terry Fox holds the key. My friend lent it to me for a short while during prep course. Its a pity I did not finish reading the book. I'll ask dad for money to buy it one of these days.

I'm mustering my forces, my strength and my ability, with God, We form an unbeatable team. I'm going to war against the devil. I'm going to fight him until he is totally pushed out of my life. I just need to gather resources, pray, fast, read my bible and get a support group ready. I have to fight for my freedom, then be sanctified to Holiness and then finally glorified.

I'm sick of
-backsliding
-sinning
-having no passion for God
-having no desire for the lost
-my bad character
-inner conflicts
-temptations
-my flaws
-being far from God
-tired of God
-lots of other things

I'm totally sick, its time I draw my sword and fight.

"Draw your swords and fight, or be killed" - Charles. Too many Christians are being slaughtered by the devil and his minions too easily. I'm not going to be one of them.