I'll like to share with you something i've learnt from my devotional in Judges 7 about God's unexpected wisdom

It's the story of Gideon leading a revolt against the Midianites after God called him a mighty warrior at the wine press.

Just before the battle, God told Gideon that he had too many soldiers.

Victory against the Midianites wasn't the goal; God's victory was.

It's interesting how we can be entirely on God's side and still be in conflict with Him.
All throughout the Bible, faithful men and women who have given themselves to God are striving to be strong for Him. Meanwhile, God offers us weakness, desiring to be strong in us
We both want strength. We want ours to glorify Him; He wants His to glorify Himself. We who live for His glory better get used to a strange dynamics: It's our insufficiency that brings Him praise.

Our efforts on His behalf seems so godly. They have pure motives, an element of faith, His agenda in mind, and an abundance of human wisdom behind them.
There's nothing wrong with the pure motives, the faith, or the agenda. It's the human wisdom that trips us up.

God wants us to be used for His purposes even more than we do, but His means are radically different. For His glory to be demonstrated, human glory as to be minimized. We can't earn honour and then give it to God.

We can only submit to Him and let Him display His honour.
In this vision-impaired world, we have to be visibly low for God to be visibly high.

The counterintuitive wisdom of God is only learnt through many years and painful experiences. We don't like our weaknesses, and we want God to make us strong. But, as Paul reminds us centuries after Gideon, we are to be strong 'in His mighty power'. (Eph 6:10)

If God doesn't take the lead in our lives and win our victories on His own terms, there's a muddled picture of glory.
Is it His or ours?

Understand His purposes. Let your vulnerability be the occasion for His power.

The Sovereign God

"God's will is not undone by our trials.
It is not even undone by our sin.
We may lose out on participating in it and enjoying it if we are persistently disobedient, but His purposes WILL be accomplished.
No plan of His can be thwarted.
We may take the long and painful way to fit into it, but God has accounted even for that.
He has seen all things from the beginning.
He knew ahead of time what your crisis would be and how you would respond to it.
He has had a plan all along to bring you into a deep, deep faith."

I hope you will be blessed in reflecting on who our Sovereign God is, in your trials and challenges.

Honesty that is good for the soul

How i proposed

I proposed at around midnight, 22nd May, exactly 20 months after we started dating.

It was at Iluma cinema. I bought the ring about a month back, waiting for the best occasion and for inspiration to strike.

The Plan:
I wanted to propose while doing what we both love- WATCHING MOVIES!!
So i carefully placed the ring into a tiny ziplock bag and placed it in my sling bag.
I wanted to put it into the pop corn and let her dig it out. Evon loves pop corn!
Then i'll pop the question...

What actually happened...

We wanted to watch a movie that night at the picturehouse but i protested when i remembered that they don't allow food. So we went to Iluma and they had nachos, and evon was really going at the nachos.She even remarked,"this is the 1st time i'm eating nachos in the cinema!"
I was hugging the pop corn(which was so ignored by her) and gorging myself silly to get the level the ring was buried in. I'm not crazy about pop corn, (which shows how much i love her) and i was feeling relatively sick midway thru the movie.
The movie(night at the museum 2) was surprisingly good and funny. So i decided to let her finish the movie before i proposed.More pop corn! sigh...

"come, let me put the pop corn on the floor!!" suggested Evon.
"NNOO WAYYY!!" i thought, and i snatched the box back and was furiously munching more of it down. arrghh...

In between, i shoved the pop corn to her, hoping for her to find the ring herself. But the nachos did her in...

(MOVIE SPOLIER AHEAD) then Ben Stiller came up with the golden line:
"Happiness is...doing what you love, with the people you love".
I knew it was the right movie!
When the credit were rolling and people were clearing, i popped the now-oily ziplock bag up and remarked,"oh look! lucky dip!"
She was in disbelief for a while..cos the ring looked like a toy "tikum" ring...

I haven't been nervous very often but i was actually feeling it that night.
Evon observed that i didn't even look at her when i asked her to marry me.

then she said yes. then i was even more excited,nervous, and continued fumbling...
I looked around consciously at the cinema ushers waiting for us to clear...and was juggling with the pop corn, nachos box, bag etc..and scrambled off our seats.
then i did a silly thing..."err..you wait for me, i go toilet!"

not quite smooth operator huh?...

well..it was my 1st time proposing...and she forgave my lack of finesse.

and we're quite excited to start planning for our new chapter together...

once we can firm up the date and venue, the invitations will come...


Quote of the week for me:

"Happiness is...doing what you love, with the people you love".

Relationships

Here's the thing I've been thinking about for the longest time...

Relationships

I don't like to call it BGR

Many youths think it's JUST between the B and the G and nobody else's business

but that's just usually the social aspect

there's more...if you care to do well, in Relationships

I've used Ps Benny Ho's teaching on "10 keys to finding a life partner" and messed up life experiences to come up with a phrase:

Choose Well,
Date Well,
Celebrate!

Here are the 10 Keys( i won't elaborate, go buy the CD!)

1. THE WISDOM OF SEEKING COUNSEL
2. THE PRINCIPLE OF BEING EQUALLY YOKED
3. THE BEAUTY OF PURITY
4. THE PRINCIPLE OF SHARED INHERITANCE
5. THE PRESENCE OF WILLINGNESS
6. THE KEY OF PRAYER
7. THE IMPORTANT VIRTUE OF KINDNESS
8. THE NEED FOR FAMILY BLESSING
9. THE PRINCIPLE OF TIMING
10. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE WELL

This teaching is based on the biblical story of Isaac and Rebekah.

Another frame work that is simple and succint is:

3 M’S IN LIFE:

1.Master

2.Mission

3.Mate

Do we know and love our Master with maturity?
Do we know and embrace our life's Mission?
Can we trust God for our Mate?

I believe He can provide if we choose the 3 M's in the right priority

So i threw up 3 frame works and if they help you, that's great.

Choose Well
- Choose life partners for marriage, not for fun.

- Accountability begins at this stage with your leaders. Allow others to tell you things you don't like to hear, like "You're not mature enough! You need to spend more time on your studies!"

- Before 18, your priorities should revolve around your studies. Devote yourself to do well in it

- Be patient and trust God. Understand delayed gratification. Grow themselves to become the best partner for the future.

-There's no PERFECT/RIGHT ONE for you. That theory is rubbish. You be the best one for the person you are ready to commit to.

- Singles don't have to be desperate or feel inadequate. Be single for a reason and season. Give yourselves fully to Kingdom Purposes.

Date Well
- Reminder that nothing is final until marriage

- "Serial Dating" causes unnecessary hurts and also griefs the Heart of God

- Accountability continues here with your leaders. Allow people to ask you,"Why were you staying over at her house? What were you doing at the park?"

-"Nothing to hide" yet "Nothing to prove". Be so beyond reproach in your dating life with nothing to hide, and yet not having the need to prove anything with excessive "public display of affections"

-Don't touch the privileges of marriage while dating, if you don't want the rule of marriage to be applied to you.

Celebrate!
-Openness and Accountability in your dating life is essential for you to draw people into your life and vice versa. That's community, that's Body life.
Then we can truly celebrate and rejoice together.


What do you think?