Main Passage: Luke 23: 32-43

The Three Crosses

Luke 23

32 There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”^[h]
And they divided His garments and cast lots. 35 And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”
36 The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, 37 and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.”
38 And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew:^[i]

THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ,^[j] save Yourself and us.”
40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord,^[k] remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Central Interest Topic: The attitudes on the three crosses

Thesis: What caused Jesus to give that one promise to the thief on the right?

Title: The Three Crosses

Key Phrase: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

*Read Main Passage

Illustration: The cross does not just belong to the Christians as I thought before. Everyone has access to it, Muslim, Buddhist, Scientologist, New Age believers and to all of us this room. Why?

When I was in secondary school I have this fascination with crosses, because almost all my friends had them. They have on their necks, their wrists, their ankles, earlobes, they even had it on their bodies as tattoos! I actually have a friend who gotten a tattoo and he was so excited about it, and I asked him, where about you put it?

Here! [Pointing at the butt]

Hence I conclude with whatever I have seen

And whatever I have heard

From them about the cross they wear, that we of this generation have iconize it.

What do I mean?

I mean we have actually put unto ourselves a beautiful idea over the cross, or for the matter of fact, the meaning of the cross. I mean who wouldn’t when Hollywood, Bollywood, Korean, Japanese, Tampines superstars wear them and put them on their bodies, who wouldn’t want to follow suit?

We have made it “fashion”

We have made the cross a “fashion”

The cross hence no longer holds the real meaning of what it is, but holds the factor of

“Cool”

“Beautiful”

“In Fashion”

Madonna wears it, I want to wear it

Beckham has it, I want to have it

Jay Chou carries it, I’ll carry it as well.

Today is Easter Day, [Talk about the whole salvation theory]

On Easter, we not only commemorate the death of Jesus but we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus three days later which is supposedly to day

and it is an opportunity for me here to be real with you.

To tell you the truth

To tear this beautiful idea about the cross

To enable you to understand what the cross really represents

Because the fact is that the idea of the cross isn’t beautiful, it isn’t cool and it is definitely not nice.

The cross is one that is filled with pain, sadness

Filled with bitterness,

Filled with questions if you are NAILED on to it,

Why it must happen to me?

Why me?

Introduction: If you have asked those questions sometime in your life before, then you have come to the right place. I plead and hope that you will just give me some time to explain and bring you to a place of truth about all this so that, all this make sense, this day make sense. It is Easter Day; I am not going to talk to you about Easter bunnies or lots of Chocolates. But I want to preach to you on the subject “the three crosses” and the three men on that crosses.

You see, as we have read the passage of the bible, we understand not one was crucified on the Calvary, but three were crucified that day! Not one cross, but three crosses.

We have always talked about that one cross, but little did we realize about the two persons beside Him.

I do know why they can’t execute Jesus alone but I know it isn’t because Jesus is insecure; He can’t die alone so they send some people to accompany Him. It isn’t by chance or man’s thinking, but by God’s divine destiny for these two persons to be here, to set us, position us, the people in this room, today

For the truth

For the right path in life

For the better

If it is man’s thinking then it is definitely one with deceit as it might just be a calculated effort by the Religious Rulers to make Jesus look really bad so they say

“Let’s crucify Him with some known criminals in the community, because you are known by the company you keep, so if we put thieves beside Him, one on the left and one on the right, then people would imagine

Surely He is guilty of something

Surely He is a criminal or some sort

Surely He is as condemned as the thieves beside Him

So the plan went on ahead. The stage is set. Right at the Calvary, there hangs three bodies that were sagging on those pierced hands. On the cross, they were in torturous pain as they thirsted as they were humiliated. They were stripped of their clothing leaving no sense of dignity for them.

As they were on the cross, they not only need to deal with the thick dust or even the heat of the day, no. They have to deal with the stares of the curious crowd that majority of them are the ones who wants them to be on the cross dying that surely slow death.

Still think that the cross is in fashion? Cool?

They all died.

They died in the exact same death

Through the same instrument and

The method of death

It is the crucifixion process for the hardest criminal

But they died entirely differently.

Different? Why Ian? Why different?

I am glad you asked. It is because as we look at the three crosses and the three men on the crosses at the Calvary, I believe there are three representations or three motivations of the crosses we talked about.

The cross on the left of Jesus is the cross of REBELLION

The cross on the right of Jesus is the cross of REPENTANCE

And the cross in the centre, where Jesus is, the cross of REDEMPTION

1^st The Cross of Rebellion

Explantion: As I read the passage again and again, what this person said kept coming back to me.

“If You are the Christ,^[j] save Yourself and us.”

He is challenging the Maker,

He is challenging the author of our lives,

The works of all miracles and that made me wonder what cause him to doubt, what cause him to be in such anger, what cause him to be in such rage to blurt out curses on the person I truly love, Jesus Christ? Then I began to pray and the Holy Spirit put me in the position of rebellion so that I could understand. And I pray the Holy Spirit to put you in place of this person so that you can understand as well.

As I and you put ourselves on the cross of rebellion, I asked these questions

What was my childhood like?

How did I end up here as a criminal?

Doing something worthy to be put to death

Was I as a child somewhat rejected?

Maybe I grew up in the poorest environment for a child and my parents don’t care the heck about me, they are drunk or something, pushed me out of the house and say to me, “If you want something to eat, go steal for a living.

Or maybe I was born in a place of great wealth but I just got around the wrong company in school, went the wrong way in life and something caused me and turned me into the life of crime.

Let’s come back to the word now. And we understand that it says here that he was a thief. He stole and it was so severe that they would want to put him to that painful death on the cross. On this day that he hangs on the cross, he has become crude, rough; he was such a habitual criminal, so bitter, so filled with hatred.

That even in such intense punishment being nailed to the cross, he has the impetus, the motivation to curse, throw vulgarities and speak hatred against the man in the centre.

Here today we sing about His blood, we give overflowing praises to Jesus, but here’s a man a few feet away from the one true “touchable” Jesus

Who hears Him pray

Who Hears the words that He utters from His blood clad lips

Who saw Mary the mother of Jesus, whom the Holy Spirit came upon and gave human life to a spiritual God! She is there at the foot of the cross. This man on the left is unmoved, blinded by anger and hatred.

Instead he smears and sneers.

Cursed everything that is reverend

Scorn everything that was sacred

The magnitude of what he did cannot be forgotten

He scorn and said, “If you are the son of God, if you are the Christ”

As you look at this man on the left at this instance, you’ll see

A bitter man

A man who is willing to die like he had live

A man who knows he is going to hell

A man who knew in a few moments time he’ll be in eternity but yet he chose with his last words to swear and curse the Son of God who came down to earth to bring us about the knowledge of everlasting life and a beautiful heaven…we ought to be there and we are on our way but this man, this man.

I want you to understand that this man is in the attitude of rebellion. He has the greatest chance he ever had in life beside Jesus, the 1 John says He who has Jesus has life, but in the last few moments of his life, something in him became

So bitter

So hardened

You see, all of us here come from

Different background,

Different family situations,

Different educational background,

Different lives totally

But there are things in life that happen to us that will make us hardened, make us bitter!

What are they? They are injustices and things that happened to us that can cause us in life to pick up a cross.

No I am not talking about the fashion crosses that we put on our necks, our butt or our ears. It isn’t about fashion, it is about our lives.

I said it before that the cross is about pain and suffering. When we pick up this cross,

We are in tears

We are broken

We are hardened

We have picked up something we don’t understand

You don’t know why this had to happen to you

You don’t know why you had to end up like you have ended up.

This was the situation for this man on the left side, he is bitter because of the cross he had picked up in life. And that caused Him to curse in anger as he stared at the Son of God, even hearing and seeing Him did not move his heart. He picked up a cross that hardened his heart.

In this room today there people that have picked up crosses, I don’t know exactly what cross it is, perhaps for some it is

A father or mother that you have loved that passed away abruptly,

Or why I didn’t have good parents?

Why my daddy has to leave me?

Why didn’t I have a mom to bring me up, when my other friends have?

Perhaps the cross you bear is a one time sex experience that you wished it wouldn’t happen but it did somehow, out of curiosity and caused you to fear for the consequences,

Why didn’t I have a normal home?

Why has this happened to me?

[Skit – Why is it so hard?]

That boy will bear a cross. He didn’t ask for it but it happened. And that cross is common all around us and it’ll take seed in us,

Cloud our thinking

And there hatred grows, accusations flows, questions thrown and you will throw at the person in the centre just like this man on the left did. Bitter and hardened.

Why this happen to me?

Why when I look at other person’s life it so filled with happiness and flowers all, and mine, when I look at it, it reminds me of hell?

Why Jesus? Why God? Tell me? [Pause]

But I want to tell you today that you can’t allow the cross that you have picked up in life to make you feel bitter and unforgiving, filled with hate. If you do, it will destroy your soul, your life.

Illustration: There is this story about a farmer that lives on a farm that loves his chickens very much. But one day eagles came and took away all the chickens unmercifully. And the farmer was exasperated, soon as he looked at his empty and hopeless coop where the chickens use to play and talk to each other and him. He grew angry, grew bitter and all this anger birthed into a plan. He made fake chickens and put it in the pen. He waited, then as one of the eagles swooped down, he grabbed one of them. He grab it, turn upside down and stuff a dynamite up his *toot* set it on fire and let if fly, hoping to see it explode into a million pieces to appease his anger. Little did he know that the eagle flew into his house and blew it into smithereens!

Anger, bitterness and hatred will bring you nowhere but hurt to yourself.

Look

I don’t know who has walked out of your life?

I don’t know what has happened to you?

I don’t know who died in your life that you wish he or she would be alive

I don’t know what kind of abuse you have experience in your life

I don’t know what kind of cross you are carrying

I don’t know why you need alcohol

I don’t know why you need drugs

Things that happen in life that makes you want to escape from reality!

But the Lord send me to tell you that if you have been experiencing darkness all your life by carrying that cross, He would be that light to guide you out.

He will be your peace

He will be your strength

So that the gates of hell will not prevail against you!

C’mon you believe in this give God a big clap right now.

Before I go on to the next “Representation” you must understand that all the crosses here are the same but the attitude is different, the motivation is different.

For the one on the left is rebellion and now on the right is repentance.

When there is a left there is a right

When there is darkness there is light

When there are problems there are solutions

When there is wrong there is right

2^nd The Cross of Repentance

There is something about this man on this cross of repentance.

Yes he is thief

Yes he is paying for his crime

Yes he is on the same cross as the person on the left

But there is something about him that brought him into destiny with our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know the last words ever recorded that Jesus heard, were the words of this special thief. Something in him understood and made him realized that right beside him is a person that did no wrong and yet suffer the same cross, that man is the centre man, Jesus Christ.

By now you must understand that the person on the left and right cross is similar in some areas:

1) They are guilty for the same crime

2) They are suffering the same cross

3) They went through the same bitterness.

Here is a place

Here is a cross where everybody can say this is me,

I have pain

I have bitterness

Hence I have the right to be bitter

I have the right not to forgive

I have the right to be angry with God and everyone else

Here is also a person who went through the exact same thing, but instead he is now turning his rebellion spirit into a spirit of repentance.

When he do that, when this thief place himself in a position of understanding. He begin to see that YES he went through a bad season, but guess what? Jesus is the reason for all seasons good and bad. He got into a place that understands that in

God there is no mistakes

He is sovereign

And He can take what Satan meant to destroy me with, turn it around and bring him to place that can have him to go from strength to strength, to have that repentful heart so as to draw nearer to Christ.

We all need to get ourselves into that position, that place where we can make that decision, to understand because what is going to stop us are the

Bitterness

The pain

And sometimes it just feels that there is no way out. [Pause]

The latest news flash is that there is a way out and it is through a book called the bible that God wrote about Himself and about you. You see there is this story in the bible about a young person who was lost

The Parable of the Lost Son

¹¹Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.

¹³"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' ²⁰So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.^[b]'

²²"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

Perhaps that was just a storytelling, let’s put it visually and see it modernly in our times how this all works out.

[Skit – My Father]

You have understand that the two thieves went through the same thing

You have also seen the two skits where the young persons struggle with the crosses that they have in their lives.

For the thieves, it is the same crime, same cross, same bitterness.

But different respond,

Different motivation,

Just like ah girl, she has the right to be angry, but she also went to a place of understanding where she saw her father always there for her. That’s the love of our God, that’s the kind of love from our heavenly father,

Always there

Always out stretching

There and then ah girl made a decision to have wrong turn to right

There and then the thief on the right made the decision to have bitterness turn to happiness

Perhaps today you have brought your bitterness and pain into this room. Thinking that after hearing all this, is it all that possible to have it better? Is it that possible?

Perhaps you are a back slided Christian who have gone cold to the misconceptions of Christianity and you want to come back

Perhaps you have been cheating all your life with lies and you come here wanting to be right with your life again

Perhaps you are like the thieves on the crosses, that can’t get rid of their habitual stealing. And you tried many times but you just do it not knowing why and you are sick and tired of it, there is a voice in you that says I want things to be right again, I want to come back.

Perhaps you have involved yourself in a sexual relationship that shouldn’t happen, but it did because the world and media says that is love. And now at the age of 15, 16 and 17 or even 18, you are facing the fear of being a father or a mother at that age.

Perhaps recently because of all the stress you have crumbled and decided to take the easy way out, hence you cheat in your examinations.

In a few moments time,

All this can be made right,

All this can be turned for the good at this altar

There might be tears, there might be anguish but God is here and if you make that same decision like that thief on the right, to exchange rebellion into repentance. Then you will begin to recognize that person on the cross, because the 3^rd cross is the cross of redemption.

Recap 1^st and 2^nd cross

3^rd The Cross of Redemption

The thief on the right came with a conviction that strikes his heart that brought about a repentful heart as he acknowledges that the person in the centre is not just one of flesh and blood, but He, He is Jesus Christ! And he opens his mouth to say to the Jesus,

“Lord,^[k] remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

And this decision

This sentence made Jesus to stretch up in pain and lean over to the thief that said that and Jesus replied

“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

He said that only to the thief on the right.

We talked

Not just about rebellion

Not just about repentance

But there is redemption

Please understand the cross can redeem you. The cross can take any cross you had to bear in life and if you would put it in His hands, he would actually turn the heartache,

The heart break,

The crisis,

The tragedy, He will turn it into your favor. He will turn it for your good. See the same cross that one was so angry about is seen in the here, is the same cross both of them according to the law were guilty for the exact same thing. But He uses his cross redemptively to draw near to Jesus.

[Two stories]

Some of you are like that thief on the cross but just a few feet away from you, just inches away from you, is the one who can take everything in your life and make some sense out of it.

Some of you, in your heart shouts it is too late it is too late…

Let me tell you if you wait any longer then it is too late.

Somebody needs to call on His name and His life giving name is Jesus. I want to thank Him for that redemptive cross.

Where will you be without Him today?

Which side of the cross are you on?

Are you on the left side of the cross?

On the cross of rebellion?

Or are you on the right side of the cross?

The cross of repentance.

God brought you here today, hence it isn’t too late

[Roy Riggins, half time … there is still a second half]

Let’s do something different in making decisions, I don’t want classroom responses where you just lift your hand!

Let’s do it the youth way

Let’s do it with all the courage a young person can muster

Let’s be loud

If you are like that thief, you want wrong turn to right

You want a messed up life to be in order again

You want God to be your Father today because you seem to have no one

I want you to run down and make a commitment at the altar to Him today, as I count to three.

life at yckss

drama teaching is fantastic! Love the impartations, love the students and absolutely love the friendships infused by sincere bonds than having the gap of age or authority of teacher vs students kinda limbo. I love all of them really. Love the job but I must understand that I have job to do, as a mundane worker and a divine worker :)

Let's see how many names I can remember from all my classes join together hmmm...

Lela
Naadra
Buuva
Nicholas
Weichun
Benson
Ameer
Xiao Ning
Douglas
Gen
Esther
Jin Tian
Berdaria
Wen Ying
Cassandra
Charlene
Benjamin
Garfield
Zahid
Far Kei
Ridzuan
Azfar
Leena
Jolene
Jaclyn
Aryu
Geraldine
Jia Xin
Cheryl
Sherlene
Christina
Celia
Amanda
Joanne
Prescella
Jin Fong
Geoffrey
Clemence
Gollum
Annas
Winnie
Hui Qi
Shihui
Sherlynn
Xue Ping
...about here lah too sleepy to continue need to rest, tom got lesson at 0740 yikes

love you Lord

this is the outside of the office from my room, I cannot imagine nor believe, it can only be from Him. Again I thank Him...

i am now working in a company named "CambridgeCollege" FULL TIME and they have given me the job of being a resident teacher for Drama at Yio Chu Kang Sec Skool, I am so happy! Thank you Jesus :P

this is me and Sherlene posing for the camera. She is one cheerful and jovial personality, see so CUTE right she? kekeke

ooh some of the happenings within the workshop, taking the creativity of young minds to a whole new level.

i am at "Yio Chu Kang Secondary School" teaching drama in a workshop as some company needed last minute relief for that particular lesson. Boy was it FUN :) look at the crowds.

dreamt

recently gotten a florist in melbourne through a good friend of mine in melbourne to deliver flowers for rox. love can really bring about a propelled purpose and weird actions that verifies it. However waking at this hour spells thoughts and unrest of certain things. Dreamt of the things that rox told me to think about while in pursuit of us being the end picture.

oh dear...is it waivering? I am not sure though these shakings are expected, but I am sure of the end picture. However the thoughts are pointed whether or not it is fair on her side if I am vigilant about my faith or what I want to do in future.

My Definite Calling

1) Youth Pastor [In Brighton perferbly...if not...it is still the grace of His that I ride on...anyone?]
2) To lead 500 young ppl into discipleship in sometime in my life.
3) Set up at church with a theatre as big as a warehouse, hosting the young ppl of generations.

This is what I am going to aim for. Right now I might be doing things differently that reflects the total opposite of what it is in the end but I have faith it'll come to pass. The first step was when I rejected my given scholarship with me memorising and done all the preparation only to tell them in the end that I cannot do it. Theatre is like my nature, it is what that is precious to me and what is precious to me is precious to God. I do not want to offer God anything in my life that cost me nothing...in Abraham's final test...it was Isaac to the altar where God knew that Isaac is Abraham's love. What is precious to Abraham is precious to God, Abraham understands God hence he gladly stood in His obedience of steel. God honors it...

15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring ^[b] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

God gave Abraham a vision to begin with, but the problem was that he was not the person that he could be at that point to receive such "GOD SIZED" blessing until certain testings that entered into Abraham's life of tutorship into God's kind of obedience. It means that if ian wants his calling or vision, ian has to give God his most precious.

rox on the other hand might be overwhelmed by this as she wants to see the world and do many things that she wants to establish her love for her passion in her arts. that got me thinking if she will support me though it is hard to say also when we are apart by the pacific. this kind of thing need time to tell. Cause for definite I am not going anywhere away from where He wants to be nor I will enforce any of ideals or truth on anyone. Cause I know the HS in me will allow "ordinary" situation that mankind thinks it is bad for relationship and make it "extraordinary" making it a relationship that will stand for eternity not just for this lifetime :) I am done.

This was my first ever offering preaching which I spent much effort to understand where God wants me or rather the church to position the thoughts about "Giving" Think I'll just put it here and share with all of you. I didn't think it all myself as I've gotten the fish bone structure of it from a CHC sharing that influenced me.

The Altar on the Threshing Floor

18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded. 20 Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
22 Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. 23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.”
And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”
24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.

Here there is an interesting conclusion to this chapter.

Here in this conclusion, God told King David to go to the threshing floors of Araunah and to worship over there.

So King David went to the threshing floors of Araunah. Can you imagine the King, the King of Israel coming to your house? What could Araunah do? Araunah bow down on face and begin to pay compliments to the King.

And Araunah ask the King why have you come to my place?

And King David replied that I am here to worship God, I am here to build an altar for God.

Then Araunah says you know what King, I will give you my threshing floor and I have oxens as well take as many as you need because you are the King. Wait you know what, I am going to put all these in one encompassing package for you because I love you as King, I would even provide the wood for your offering.

And you know what, David took look at this whole thing, he look at this whole entire package that Araunah provided for him.

David was given an offer to worship God at a discount. In fact David was given an offer to worship God for free!

[Service oriented society example]

You know what David refuse this discount, he refuse this free package and made this statement in v24

“No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.”

Friends, this afternoon when you came to this place, you have the ushers to serve you to your seat.

Just now you had the worship team, the musicians and the vocalists to help you and serve you in your worship.

In a few moments time, we have our Senior Pastor to come to the pulpit to serve you the Word of God.

Really the offering time is the only time where you can give something to God out of your own as a sacrifice.

That’s why in our offering, we want to get it right from this week onwards.

Let us not come and offer to God at a discount

Let us not come and offer to God something for free

Let it be something that cost you

Let it be a true sacrifice

You see the beautiful part of this story is that on this piece of threshing floor, eventually the temple of God was built.

Friends, if you read throughout the bible, God always builds on the sacrifices of His people.

When God’s people would learn to sacrifice, God will say I will build on that, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

this is the 6th Annual Life! Theatre Awards which I've attended. And the Finger Players gotten three awards under the categories of Best Actress, Best Director and Best Lighting Designer. Kudos to the Finger Players! People who has always given me the opportunity to grow and shine in my craft as a practitioner of Arts.

me and the infamous "Mr Miyagi" aka Benjamin Lee I think...took this shot embarrassingly with Hossan Leong laughing at the background, oh dear Roxanne, I took this shot because you intro me to him, so this is for you! He says hi to you as well cos I had a chat with him. Now ian is branded as Mr Star Struck tsk tsk...

it is obvious who lost the match...ian will have his day ARGGGHHH ( .V. )

frisbee session with connect group after starbucks last saturday...look at the concentration!

three leaders of Brighton Youth wanted for supposed peeing in the SIngapore River...tsk tsk...still so happy about it LOL :)

the gangsters for Christ...we are male by birth but "MEN" by choice!

Oh Gosh...Daryl is walking on water...and the other two...what faith!

what is Matthew and Zhen Sheng doing kneeling down like that??? AH I KNOW...the freedom of worship...carry on guys!

phototaking session at esplanade was really a fun event, everyone bonded with one another. Just look at them and Daryl [in black tee] looks like the only one that got his eyes fixed on something others others can't see (^____^) P

this is the 2nd half of the happy bunch in the StarBucks that we dwelled in for that Bible Study :)

this is the happy bunch of my connect group. They are the best bunch of guys and they will be great men in future. Pillars of a great church for Christ for sure. I'll pray and ensure it happens.

my connect group had bible study at "StarBucks" first ever time I tried it out.Though it isn't up to my expectations due to the ever going construction outside interuppting the flow of the Holy Ghost but it was the bonding the encapsulate the spirit of fellowship emmulating the disciples in Acts.

I crave a divine understanding

Understanding the exegesis of the Corinthian Epistles is one heck of a job. Whatever Rev Ruth taught in class today includes scholarly constructed words which I received only 40% or less of it. The the biblical view of ian loy is definitely much simpler, am I do stay like this and struggle in bible skool. I am beginning to waiver in my thoughts about it. Yes, it is my calling to come here, whether or not my vessel is ready to receive is another. One thing is sure is that I am gaining depth here. However I envy though the older personalities of my classmates who grew up young in church and started passionately and diligently in the pursuit of His Character in the various mediums offered to them in their time.

Why I have time to blog now? I am skiving. Feeling so bad...think I better head back to class before someone catches me. Better widen my capacity for head knowledge! This I can only ask HS to help because I am really at my limits. During class I was thinking about last night when my mum asked me to fininsh up the corn soup she made, and I told her I just wanted to eat the corn and not the meat pieces, guess what was her reply? "SHUT UP and EAT" so funny...whole family talks the same way however we know it in our code that love enfolds that ruffian alike language.

Rox sms me in class today. Shared with me what will make her really mad mad mad. Well, understanding her thoughts, who wants to be imposed of ideals and values of another person. I rather the person accept it and understand it on his or her own will. Like this she or he reap what she sown...it'll be more self revelating! Going back to class liao...super late YIKES (^_____^) P Jia You!!!