Come Now Is The Time / No Higher Calling

Awesome worship we had this morning and here's 2 songs I'd like to share ;-) God Bless!

No Higher Calling
Down at Your feet, O Lord
Is the most high place
In Your presence, Lord
I seek Your face (2x)

There is no higher calling
No greater honor
Than to bow
And kneel before Your throne
I'm amazed at Your glory
Embraced by Your mercy
O Lord, I live to worship You

Come Now Is The Time
Come, now is the time to worship
Come, now is the time to give your heart
Come, just as you are to worship
Come, just as you are before your God
Come

One day ev'ry tongue will confess You are God
One day ev'ry knee will bow
Still the greatest treasure remains for those
Who gladly choose you now

Carmen

Miri City Christmas Parade 2008

Last Saturday, we gathered at the amphitheatre at Miri City Fan for the Miri City Christmas Parade, organised by the Christian Community of Miri. It was also my first time to the Miri City Fan! There were about 3720 of us participating in the celebration from churches like SIB, Methodist, Anglican, CLSF, FGA, Baptist, Calvary, SDA, Boys Brigade, RC and St Joe band!

The theme was Christ...The Perfect Gift of Christmas. Indeed we were very privileged to be able to share the love of Christ with Miri-ans openly through the celebration.

Y.B. Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr. George Chan initiated the parade earlier this year and he officiated the parade and also gave a speech.

In the opening prayer by one of the church pastors, I remembered the pastor asked us to cheer and clap as loud as we can "sehingga daun gugur" (in BM), and guess what, some leaves did fall in between me and Augustine, Praise God!

We also had worship where we sang 2 songs in both languages : Hai Mari Berhimpun Dan Bersukaria/O Come All Ye Faithful and Kesukaan Bagi Dunia/Joy To The World.

The offerings collected during the service totalled RM11K plus and will be donated to the Miri Kidney Dialysis Centre and Miri Cancer Society. Praise the Lord!

The parade around the city (about 3km) was an awesome experience for us, being able to share our celebration in public, wishing everyone a blessed Christmas and sharing tracts. Indeed God was present with us throughout the celebration. God is good!

The weather was excellent all through the evening and night. I think it only rained like somewhere in the middle of the night!

We thank God for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ with many on Saturday and may everyone's hearts be blessed this Christmas as we remember our Lord Saviour and the peace and joy He brings us.

Blessed Christmas to all and enjoy the slideshow below!

Carmen

Follow up to "A faithful christian in Lean environment "

Change is necessary in any circumstances, although many people might not deem this as a need or even sometimes we cannot tell the outcomes are for the better or for the worse. Change is for the survival and hoping for a good outcome. All and all, it is quite subjective and open for different opinions from different level of thinking and individuals.

Let's have some scenarios to prove its existence, act as reflections and for food of thoughts:
1. people will change after pay rise, which is bringing family for vacation, etc.
2. even after marriage and family growth, people might change to buy a bigger car in order for the family to ride in more comfort.

Are these 2 scenarios showing that people will change because of their needs or because of knowing their outcomes are for better or worse??

Personally, scenario 1 is explicitly showing that people change because of trying to fulfill a sense of satisfaction or to provide a self reward from a milestone of hard earned efforts, but do we really think it is a need? Generally it should be good if everyone is contented from certain angles, if not all. In negative angles, family might not be happy or satisfied from the vacation if let's say, plane delays, sudden riots in the place that is planned for the vacation, etc. Do we prioritize the outcome or the need first?

Scenario 2 is more likely to show that need has precedence priority since house, car, clothes and food are deemed to be necessities. But is the outcome important as well? A good car can bring the family for a long term comfort but a car which is always having emergency break down although it is new, might have averse impact. So, again, do we prioritize the need or the outcome first?

By adopting Lean, companies have better chances to survive (or even excel) and have better and positive outcomes under the threat of recession and financial undesired meltdown, than not changing at all. It is not a need but a MUST for survival. After all, Lean (just like six sigma) is reputable for having a systematic methodology and approach to improve and turnaround business. Employees will be protected and job secured if companies are survived. Same towards becoming a good and faithful Christian, change according to the teachings from Jesus and miracles can happen. Really can’t emphasize how much more that change should come within a person’s heart (as precedence priority) and not from external influence or factors.

珍惜每一天!

Augustine

A faithful christian in Lean environment

How some of the contents in the Lean philosophy could be so much similar to the teachings in the Bible?

Actually i don't intend to compare a management tool from Toyota's invention to a religion teaching....but there is a desire within me to share this message since i'm associated to both school of thoughts.

Today, a church sermon was delivered that was so much relevant to the world happenings now. Taken from Luke 5: 37-39. Lots of people refuse to change once they are happy (or lazy to change) when they are in the comfort zone. Sometimes, these people also fear in changes, inflexible to change, no long term vision to change, etc.

Change...a very powerful word in today's world as we see many people lost or swayed aside from their good old days but these people still remain the same in their lifestyle. Lost of career, lost of incomes, etc. But they are still overspending and remain in their old lifestyle. Why?

As Lean change agents, sometimes we also encounter resistance from people (especially old timers) to change in the business process, the working culture and the way of working. Cost cutting, business improvement or organisation restructuring...all these are towards changes as well.

In a nutshell, changes are coming from inside a person's heart and not forced by external factors.

Augustine

Entering God's Presence Through Praise and Worship

I love attending church here. One of the reasons is the praise and worship usually lasts about an hour. Time to appreciate and give thanks to God is never enough.

1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever". God is good ALL THE TIME. When I am weak, God gives me strength, wisdom and love. I consider myself very blessed, but no doubt in the course of running my business and in my relationships, I sometimes fail and I also have my mountains and tough times. But each time I get anxious, tense and all worried, I pray and ask God for help, and each and every time, He never failed to answer. Sometimes it is not an answer I expect, but He answers, in His perfect timing coz our God is a righteous and faithful God. I try to accept every challenge and difficulty that comes my way coz what do we have to share with others if we didn't have any problems to encounter and learn from leaning on God and experiencing God's power and love? Why does God always choose the poor, the sick and the underprivileged? It is so that God's glory can be magnified!

I wanna encourage all of you to sing and give praise to the Lord no matter what circumstances you are in and I pray that you will find strength and joy in the Lord when you enter in His presence.

Dear Lord, thank you for your faithfulness, thank you for the blessings.

This is one of my favourites called Lord of Lords from Hillsong's Saviour King album :-

Beholding your beauty is all that I long for
To worship You Jesus is my soul's desire
For this very heart you've shaped for your pleasure
The purpose to lift your name high

Hear and surrender in pure adoration
I enter your courts with an offering of praise
I am Your servant come to bring you glory
As is fit for the work of your hands

Chorus:
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of creation resounds with the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Verse 2:
The spirit now living and dwelling within me
Keep my eyes fixed ever upon Jesus' face
Let not the things of this world ever sway me
I'll run 'till I finish the race

Chorus 2:
Singing unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of creation resounds with the song
Worship and praise the Lord
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
All of eternity echoes the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Bridge:
Holy Lord
You are Holy
Jesus Christ is the Lord

Chorus 3:
Now unto the lamb who sits on the throne
Be glory and honor and praise
Call all the saints to join in the song
Worship and praise him the Lord of Lords

Ending:
Lord of Lords
Lord of Lords
Lord of Lords

Carmen

Faith. Hope. Love

Hmmm what shall I write...since Augustine was talking about adapting in his first post, I 'd like to share a message we heard in church last Sunday.

Senior Pastor preached about faith, hope and love, one verse he referred to was Hebrews 11:8 "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."

I was very encouraged by this verse as I have been thinking on and off about the relocation all the way here from our comfort zones back home in PJ/KL. In fact, the night before, we were again talking about this, if this was indeed the best for both of us and so on.

And Pastor in his message said we can liken Abraham's experience to ours where when something seemed to be our only avenue of blessings - our job and family back home in this case, and God then asks us to give it up for something we are not sure of.

Do we have faith in Him? Faith is all about obeying God anyhow, being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Which is why we need to continue to build our faith and learn to lean on Him and seek Him constantly for wisdom and guidance in all that we do. God certainly is more eager to bless us than we are to receive His blessings!

I thank God for His assurance and I look forward to continue my journey here with Augustine.

Next I wanna write about our day in Brunei ;-)

Carmen