Help, anyone?

Have you guys ever felt what is it like to have a friend tell you 'I'm not a Christian anymore.' ?
I just did.
It didn't hit me that my friend could be slipping away and now he's gone.
i cried for him, i don't know why but when he said it, the words just hit me square on the head.
It was unexpected. Maybe because it was my first experience dealing with a close christian friend who just backslided, so subtly i didn't even know how.
I tried to talk to him and he may be facing hard times but then i said help is just a prayer away, and its always been this way. and the reply was :

' sorry i don't believe in this anymore'.

I felt like this gigantic wave just came over me and now i'm floating in the ocean , not knowing what to do. (help, anyone?)

It occured to me that some of our Christian friends may be slowing slipping away and if we don't do something, they may backslide till it becomes very difficult for us to bring them back. I'm not at liberty to share what happened but most of the time why people backslide is because they are not strong in their faith and they get disillusioned about how some Christians behave, right?

This reminds me of how i should behave as an ambassador of Christ.

So, right now all i can do is pray for him to come back to Christ and also to continue spreading the gospel , cause we never know if someone is feeling far from God and needs encouragement from us and the Bible!

sorry i made this post sound so emo, i just had to get everything out and this made me realise we cannot take many things for granted, including friends whom you thought had strong Christian faith .

JIAYOU my friends, and let's reach out to bring people back to Christ!

Love always, Viv

Hi everyone..Its me.Hope you guys had good holiday.. Cos mine is like shortened like a lot seriously...Haha.. Dun wanna start school cos it'll mean exams. N there's still a long long way to go...Arg.

Anyway im here to update on my mum as requested. I accompanied her to the polyclinic today. The doctor seemed to be quite kuku. We requested for a check up, then he asked my mum if she had breakfast. She said yes. The doctor then told us to wait outside the lab for check up. So we waited and waited and waited...But the queue number don't seem to appear in the 'next in line' so we can't wait any more. Then we entered and asked the lady inside. She asked us the same question "have you had your breakfast?" and again my mum said yes. She told us not budge in next time when it's not our turn yet. So we went back to the doc. When we told him about it, he just bochap-ly said, 'O, then you just come tomorrow morning lo!"...I was quite angry upon hearing that... I didnt know that my mum can't have breakfast before the lab check ups. And even tho we told the doctor she had breakfast, he still asked us to wait outside the lab for nothing...

So...my mum will be going for the check up tomorrow alone and the test results will be out next week. Pray that the report will explain all her vomitting and uncomfort. DO NOT pray that nothing will be found...Cos then that'll be scary as obviously something is wrong with her immune system being sick for 3 months...At least we want to find out what's wrong with the body system..

Please pray for my mum...Thanks guys.

And pls rmb to come for cell this sunday BY 1045 sharp to pray. Lets not give ourselves leeway of even a minute. Heard this before? 'If you're right on time, you're late.'

Worship leaders pls start worship at 11am regardless of the attendance. We need to work this out together ya..God bless you all..

In His love,
Jianhan

Lessons on Temptation

This is a follow up sharing from what has been taught during support group regarding temptations. 

Basically there are two kinds of Satan attacks:

1. Desires of the world~ eg, luxury goods, entertainment and television, media and sex appeals, body building and beauty, etc. 1 Jn 2:15-Do not love the world or anything in the world. if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him
2. Desires of the flesh~eg, sexualy desires, pornography, gluttony, badmouthing/slanders, etc.

Satan's Original Victory

1 Jn 2:16 amp- For all that is in the world, the LUST OF THE FLESH [craving for sensual gratification], and the LUST OF THE EYES [greedy longings of the mind] and the PRIDE OF LIFE [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things] --- these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself]

Victory won by Christ

• The characteristics of Jesus is explained, Heb 4:15-Jesus was tempted in everything, exactly as we are, yet was without sin.
  
• Rom 8:3,4-For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man... in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature [flesh] but according to the Spirit.
  
• What Christians don't actually realize is the fact that we do not need to constantly be in the agony of being stuck with temptations and not having the strength to overcome it. The deciding factor to overcoming is to claim victory in Jesus' name because, He had already won it on the cross. 
• Isn't insane to see ourselves having a magnificent and powerful God but living in a hermit shell of our own? No longer are we living in our own flesh, but a spirit given by God to commune with God's very own spirit. That power lies in His name, that's the punch!
  

Christian's Continual Victory

1. Know the victory is already won. Due to satan's defeat at the Cross, the deviil's only strength now is found in a Christian's ignorance (Hos 4:6) If we understand the complete work of the Cross and Resurrection in our life, the devil is stripped off any weapon against us. 
2. Walk in step with the Spirit. Walk in obedience to His inner promptings day by day (Gal 5:22-25) 
3. Recognize temptation for what it is. Temptation is NOT sin. YIELDING to temptation is (Jas 1:15)
4. Understand there is a way of escape provided. 1 Cor 10:13-No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. and God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. but when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. James 4:7-Submit to God, resist the devil and he shall flee! There's no way we could have resisted the devil with our pathetic human strength in our own name. The criteria is in the first part, submit to God! When you do so, then can the Lord show His direction and give you His power!
5. Keep the right focus in life. Col 3:1,2-Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on thigns above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. If we are called to be students, we will allow God's will to work through in our lives by studying. Therefore, other activities that might draw you away from your focus like tv can be damaging and distracting. 
6. Keep away from obvious areas of temptations. Unless you love battling with lots of temptation to cause you to sin, i guess it's totally self-explanatory.
7. Be aware of satan's schemes: (knowing the characteristics of satan helps us to identify him and outwit his tactics. for eg, when tempted with lust of the eyes, a voice comes and says, its ok la, see a while only, nothing wrong what... is this a temptation that can be justified in accordance to God's word? satan is a liar, reject him immediately with the word of God!)

• he is a liar
• he is a slanderer and accuser
• he is a deceiver
• he is a tempter
• he is an oppressor
• he is a hinderer
• he is a roaring lion

hope you guys have a better understanding now! =D

Love,

Alvin