xtravagantworshipper

Praise Him!

Recently, a sister-in-Christ shared with me some challenges she has been facing. Though my super-fast mind was racing around with solutions of what we can do, I eventually told her that the greatest thing we can do is to turn to the Lord. Let Him take over, and on our own part, we can cover ourselves in prayer.

I cannot possibly imagine the pain and hurt she must be going through. Many of us often think of prayer as something like a ‘last resort’. It doesn’t rank high among our list of priorities because, by human nature, of the flesh, we are predisposed to think of solutions, to want to do something about it, be it difficulties, conflicts or challenges. I have been guilty of this several times myself.

Yet the Lord showed me something that gave me a fresh revelation of His love for us this morning. But first let me give you a bit of background.

The Lord impressed upon me to send this verse to the above-mentioned sister, taken from Philippians 4:6-7 – “Do not be anxious in anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto the Lord, and the peace of our Lord Jesus, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus”.

Of course, you may notice that the words of the verse are not the exact ones because I was trying to type it from memory. It was the first Bible verse that about seven years ago, a sister from my previous church had given it to me after I came back to the Lord after more than two years of “back-sliding” and tears and trials. The verses were written on a small little card that goes into my wallet, and I still kept it in my small Chinese Bible.

I loved these verses, which are always the first to come to my mind whenever I face any challenges myself. The peace of God – oh how great it is – if you could actually begin to understand what Jesus said when He said, “Peace, I give to you, not as the world gives.” It’s a peace that transcends all human understanding, that is like a nest of baby birds in a crevice of a cliff in the midst of a thunderstorm. Picture that in your mind – I’ve got a poster of that picture myself!

This morning, while reading Darlene Zschech’s book Extravagant Worship on my way to work, those same two verses Philippians 4:6-7 jumped out to me on those pages. Darlene was describing the pain and heartbrokenness she went through after she lost her child which she was carrying for twelve weeks, THREE DAYS before she was supposed to set off on a USA tour with Hillsong church.

Can you imagine the pain and sorrow, and she said the last thing she wanted to do was to sing. Yet she heard the Holy Spirit inside her keep prompting her to Sing. And she did, not out of her mind, she said, but out of something deeper from inside of her. I can imagine that tears must have flowed freely as she was singing.

And I realise that the Lord had given me an answer to something I was subconsciously asking for: what can I do? how can I help this sister? what can I tell her?
The answer is so Him: yes, prayer is one thing. But He wants us to rejoice, sing unto the Lord, praise Him and shout! Darlene had given examples from the Bible of how King Jehoshaphat placed worshippers to sing “Give thanks to the Lord, for His mercies endures forever!” before his army. Note that at that time he was doing this, he was leading the army of Israel to battle against three nations that have conspired to come against him. In another example, Darlene described how Joshua led the children of Israel to break down the walls of Jericho. We are all familiar with that story, but hey, all of us have our own walls, either we set it up ourselves or it’s something the Devil purpose to place before us to trap us, separate us and turn us away from the love of our Lord Jesus. But the children of Israel, having circled the walls of Jericho seven times, let out a huge victorious shout and the walls crumbled.

Hey beloveds, do you know that when you come before Him and praise Him, Abba Father rushes to you immediately. In fact He never left you nor forsook you. David penned his awesome psalms of praise and worship when he was fleeing from the hands of his own son Absalom. But in the dark of night, when everything seems to go against him, he sang. Praises that stirred the Lord’s heart, worship that is offered with nothing much but delights our Lord with everything.

Praise Him! Because praises are like the swords and spears that cuts every other way as you sing and shout to proclaim from a position of faith, who He is and what He has done. If praises are the weapons of our spiritual warfare, then worship is like our sweet murmurings to the Lord, our love letters in songs, or just a warm blanket on a cold winter night. Of course, both praises and worship can fulfil the same two functions. But the important point is this, praise and worship is powerful prayer! Awesome power! It’s not the “appetizer” before service or the “icing on the cake” after a sermon. Many people in our church don’t even turn up for praise and worship. It’s not the “interlude” time that allows you to make a last-minute dash to the Rock before the pastor preaches.

The Lord delights in our praises, and He wants us to sing praises to Him even in the midst of our trials. Because like what Darlene shared, our Abba Daddy inhabits in our praises, and in His presence, where He is, there is healing, there is refreshing, there is restoration, there is prosperity, there is grace and mercy, there is hope, there is peace, there is joy, and most of all, there is His awesome personal touch – His love! When we praise Him, He rushes to embrace us in His presence, in His love. And there we find everything we need – in Him!

This song came to my mind as I was rounding up the chapter before I exit the train:

I give You praise, for You deserve it,
I give You praise, for what You’ve done,
I give You praise, for You are able,
I give You praise till I’m overcome

I give You praise, when the sun is shining,
I give You praise, in the dark of night,
I give You praise, when the battle rages,
I give You praise till it works out right!

(So) The shout of the King is among us,
God lives here, in our praises,
The shout of the King is among us,
Praise Him, Praise Him,
Praise Him in everything!

Heavens open as we sing Your praise,
Angels join us as we praise Your Name.


What a truly awesome song! And the Holy Spirit just gave me another revelation as I was typing the lyrics of this song. You know the meaning of “the shout of the King”? It’s not our shout, it’s the King’s shout, our Daddy’s shout! It is His victorious cry against our enemies, proclaiming His triumph over all. It’s the shout of our Lord Jesus Christ when He cries out “It is finished!” Praise Him! It is finished because He did that complete work on the Cross.

Praise Him!!! Worship Him!!! Hallelujah!!!

posted by weiwen @ 10:53 AM 2 Comments

More Than Words

I love writing. Shall I state this on record again? Okay, I love writing.

I write to express my emotions, to share personal experiences, to show-off sometimes perhaps, or just to pen a page of my life as a record.

It’s been a while since I last blogged. And what I’m going to talk about probably has nothing with how I started this entry.

I was just flipping through the pages of this month's NTU Alumni newsletter, that gets sent to my mailbox. Saw a couple of my university school mates being featured. Apparently, they had won some prize for their project in some Festival of the Arts in the United States. *gasps*

Yes, another of my school mates is now an accomplished host and regular DJ on one of Singapore’s most popular Chinese radio stations. And she even got to host Project Superstar.

Another senior just won the Straits Times Young Journalist of the Year Award, and he was also being featured in the newsletter.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dying to get my face printed on some publication or newspaper. I guess it’s just one of those inevitable stuff you do – you make comparisons, you like to know how your peers are doing compared to yourself.

Of course, there are also school mates who remained bums; but most, I suspect, are leading a pretty decent life. I guess my point is, perhaps, I have always dreamt about doing big stuff, not so much fame and fortune stuff. But just big stuff.

I have always wanted to become a war reporter, or those reporters that get sent abroad to cover the Asian Tsunami or the Hurricane Katrina or the 9/11 incident. It’s not about the fame, it’s about telling other peoples’ stories. It’s about letting other people know the plight of these people. I’m never one of those news hounds, whose major ambition in life is to break another’s life. I know there are reporters like that out there, but thankfully, not many of them are in Singapore.

I still remembered how I thought I heard Pastor just blurted out the words “be a journalist” out of the blue during a particular night of bible studies. I know one dear brother remembered that incident because he told me excitedly afterwards that he knew that was for me the moment those words were uttered. I guess in the back of my mind, I like to believe him too.

Am I contented with where I am right now? I think we can never be contented. But compared to my peers, am I happy doing what I’m doing? I guess it’s not as “glam” as reporting, so to speak. Journalism has its own woes and drags too.

I’m still doing writing, albeit, in a different form. I saw how a certain lady can get famous just by blogging. I wondered if I can too. Or rather, I should say I just have this desire to publish something, you know, write a book, get it published, so people can read and enjoy it.

I remembered getting a phone-call from the NTU School of Communication and Information alumni one day during office hours. Apparently, they are trying to keep a record of recent graduates. After I’ve furnished her with my particulars and things like, when I graduated and what I majored in and what I am doing now (my job, that is), she managed to slip in the question: “So have you won any awards?”

That question really caught me totally by surprise. I mouthed a few words I think, something like: “Well, I hoped so…I guess.” And then as if to check if she got her facts right, she followed up with a: "So that means you haven't won any awards." I don’t know what to make of it. I know in my line of work, there is a possibility to win an award in the creative circles, like perhaps the Crowbar or the Singapore Creative Awards, because nowadays they give you an award for everything. It’s like those “stars” that you collect when you were in primary school, for example, after you get full points for your spelling. It serves to validate what you’ve accomplished. Like a plaque or testimony.

I ask myself: are those really that important? I mean, of course, it takes time to build a portfolio and all, and yes, of course, to win an award is like making a statement to the whole world, in my case, the advertising or creative circles world that “you have ARRIVED”. I remembered my boss ask me this question casually over a conversation in his car: “So do you aspire to be the best copywriter in Singapore?”

I didn’t answer him. Because that question hit me with the same magnitude as that question from the caller from the school alumni. Where am I now, at this point in time? Probably next to zilch in terms of career wise.

But I just love writing. And I haven’t given up hope of one day writing a book, maybe a few books, and publishing them of course. I just want to enjoy the writing without thinking whether what I write will win any awards or not.

Let me say that again: I love writing.

posted by weiwen @ 12:50 AM 3 Comments