Because of my brother's extremely poor results, he's banned from the computer on weekdays.

[If I ever see him slacking and wasting his life away on that machine, I'm gonna....nvm]

I knew it.

God tells us that we reap what we sow. My brother sows procrastination, reluctant attitude and lack of fervour in studies. So, he reaps bad grades and the attached consequences.

We prayed for him. Even when the exams drew near. It's true that God can do miracles if He wants to, but never take His omnipotence for granted.

Don't think that just because you prayed extra hard before the exam, God will do a breakthrough in your papers for you, to compensate for your lackluster efforts.

WAKE UP YOUR BLOODY IDEA!!!

As much as God gives, He takes away as well.

No wonder grace is called grace. Something which you don't even deserve.

When I didn't put in sufficient effort or have been slack in performance, I never even dare to ask God to do miracles for me. How dare I? I would rather ask Him to reveal the areas which needs correction and for a thorough circumcision of my heart.

God deserves the best from you. You never please God by wasting your life away.

If you have no purpose for living, you might as well not live.

Stop going through the motions, stop doing things for the sake of doing them. Seek something deeper and more far-stretched. Sometimes, there's more than just what our minds can conceptualise.

Dear Lord,

I know that at this juncture, my schedule's getting more and more packed. Things, events, meetings and all start to full up the empty slots on my timetable.

I ask that You provide me with effective and efficient time and resource management.

Let not the busy-ness take my heart and passion away from serving You.

And also, please help me set aside time to play and practice the Blues and worship songs too.

May I be a good steward of the gifts, talents and resources You placed in my life.

You be glorified in me, Lord.


In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Spiritual Sponges

During quiet time I read about us being like spiritual sponges.

The more we are humble, open and receptive, the more we will be able to absorb, the more teachable we will be. Thus, we are able to receive and get more input.

The Lord also tells us to be a blessing to others.

So what's next?

He will have to squeeze the sponges in order for them to let go of the blessings in them so that others in turn will receive it.

12 Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 1 Peter 4

A sponge will not be very useful if it refuses to let go of its contents when squeezed or pressed.

How willing are you to give up and surrender whenever God 'presses or squeezes' you?

My Prayer for Us and Myself

We are to love others. We are to bless others in our prayers.

But if some people still don't get it and they refuse to change and still continue to take for granted their many blessings, I will not hesitate to ask God to wake up their ideas, to cause something to happen to them to shake them up, or even to bring His wrath upon them.

Like for those who stray away from Him - I still love them and will continue to pray for them. But I also pray that God will wake them up from their 'slumber' and breach their comfort zones, take them out into nakedness, expose them and reveal to them that He is all they need.

It's all for their own good. And if you think ignorance is bliss, you're so wrong.

May Your consuming fire burn in us, O Lord.

there must be more than this

Tim Hughes' title "Consuming Fire" seemed to want to re-ignite a flickering/dying flame of passion in me.

The line, "There must be more than this" kept ringing in my head ever since last week.

And somehow or rather, I feel that at this moment - how I spend my time, how I live my life - there must be more to them. I'm kind of feeling like "it's not it, yet..." and "it's like further potential waiting to be unleashed".

My heart cries out desperately for more. More things to pursue, to engage, to commit, to live for, to give up, to serve, etc.

But some side of me fears burning out and having insufficient time for myself. Internal conflict.

That's something in which God has to help me sort out.

=====

Honestly, I HATE the feeling of not having anything to look forward to.

Especially for my guitar playing.

I'll be uneasy whenever I find out that there's 'no more' to learn. As in, you have expended your current learning and practice resources.

So that's why I ought to read up and find out more on what I can pick up in the days to come. Like what I mentioned before, "To take your playing to a higher level".

I'm not being obsessed with technicalities, but I'm cultivating a spirit of excellence in me, to strive for and give my best in whatever I'm pursuing.

So great to have the Blues to learn and fingerstyles to brush up on....

I'm having a little efficiency problem

Erm...from what I see myself doing right now, I think I'm experiencing some sort of an efficiency problem. My productivity level's way too low at the moment and I fear for the worst.

I'm unable to wake up on time (6.30am) and I snooze/ignore the alarm clock for too long. When I wake up I dilly-dally and wonder about aimlessly.

I know I've got some admin work to do for church events and camps, but I can't take all day to do them right?

I've got my Blues dummies book and guitars lying around. I play and practice on them. I try new things, tricks and techniques on them. But still, I sense that my life right now is way too unproductive.

I fear I might already be.......slacking....shit!

=====

After analyzing today's work progress (if any), I found out that much of the inefficiency is derived from me trying to do too many things at the same time.

I can have my guitar on my lap, then I practice worship songs, then go check out some blues licks and rifts, listen to their mp3's, check my email, reply emails, surf some guitar sites, etc.

Thing is, I'm a person who's better at doing a few things, if not one, and doing them/it well.

Therefore, I should focus and not digress. One thing at a time, Dominic....one thing at a time.

Yesterday was my first time attending the overnight prayer. It's from 11.45pm - 6am.

During the event and all, we prayed for homosexuality issues in our world and in our nation as well as the 3 different ministries in church - [1] youth, [2] children and [3] healing and counselling.

At around 5 plus (where the praying peaked), I was almost on the verge of dozing off and even had to force my eyes open to pray, if not I won't be surprised if my mind happened to drift away in thoughts.

=====

The previous Saturday marks the end of my 8-lesson guitar module for intermediate players.

It was really an experience attending the lessons.

Firstly, I had to wake up very early in the morning and I usually suffer from the lack of sleep because my events and plans for Fridays always end quite late.

Secondly, I was really inspired by the technical skills and passion which the teachers displayed. I find myself wanting to improve my abilities so that one day I can 'be like them'.

Thirdly, my playing style was shaken up violently by the honest and straightforward comments which they made. One of the teachers was very strict with us, yet so accurate in pinpointing the areas which we have to improve.

All in all, I wouldn't be playing what I'm currently playing if not for the teachers and their lessons. Even if I had to endure and bear many things in mind, it was still worth it at the end of the day.