Bam!

My girl Sunita getting healed!

...and that's how Jesus does it! Praise the Lord!

Dance party!

Baptism, here I cometh!

Cool testimony at baptizmo class today:

This guy had a tattoo on his chest that said, "satan lives here" or "I belong to satan", something icky like that. Guess he was dabbling in the occult before he was saved? So anyway, at baptism class he mentioned that one of his biggest regrets was getting that tattoo. No kidding, cos laser-removing that sucker would be painful and expensive. Even then it'd probably still leave a stain or scarring on his skin.

But pshaw! No matter, our God is greater!

Fast forward to the day of his actual baptism: He gets immersed in water, comes up all squeaky clean and whatnot then goes to change into dry clothes; which is when he realizes that the ick-nast tattoo is GONE. Poof! Bam! Boom! Finito! Jehovah Rapha in the house! haha wonderful God! Yay Jesus! /cool story.

Now I can't wait to get dunked. Like a donut in coffee. Cookies in milk. mmmm. Always thought it was more of a public declaration, but now I believe there are significant spiritual implications that go along with water baptism. Jesus got baptized by J-Bap before he started His public ministry so that pretty much settles it. Just imitate Jesus, seek God and everything will come up roses.

Pastor Cui Xian also mentioned to be alert for spiritual warfare in the coming days. Be self-controlled and very alert, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. (only like a roaring lion though, not an actual one) boo. hiss. But I put on the full armor of God so that I can take my stand against the devil's schemes.

My cousin once said, "There's a tiger inside of you!" aka Lion of Judah! Watch out yall, we be takin' the land.

  Rawrrr!

Also Maori tiger. Cos he funny.

Joyful Joyful

aaahhh God is good. All the time. Seriously. He really is the Lover of my soul, my Savior, my Creator, my Healer, my Righteousness, my Strong Tower, my Rock, my Sun, my Shield, my Refuge, my Light, my Provider, my Helper, my Sanctifier, my Peace, my Best Friend, my Papa, my Banner, the Lord Almighty... He will never leave me nor forsake me...
I could just go on forever and I will! Could He be any more perfect and merciful and kind and patient and loving and fun and generous? Computer says YEAH! haha JESUS! Just a few years ago, I was in the depths of depression and oppressed by suicidal tendencies, sickness and a whole lot of pain and never thought I'd make it to age 30, much less 31, but here I am today, alive in Christ and kicking like a pony! He loved me, saved me, healed me, strengthened me and lifted me up with His righteous right hand. He restores the years the locusts have eaten.There couldn't be any truer statement than these (other than you know, the entire Bible):

 God is love.

He has loved us with an everlasting love. 

God is faithful.

He will not test us beyond what we can bear.

His love and faithfulness endure forever.

His grace is sufficient for us.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Yeehaw!

 Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows.  
~ James 1:17

Psalm 147
Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!

The Lord builds up Jereusalem,
he gathers the exiles of Isreal.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of stars
and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power,
his understanding has no limit.

The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make music to our God on the harp.

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of a man;
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion,
for he strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the Lord!

Decorations are go!

Buddy: tree trimmer extraordinaire! Elf never gets old.

An incredible thing just happened. My Mom and I (two ladies with laughable upper body strength) were at Ikea trying to figure out how we were gonna get our bigass Christmas tree in a taxi and lug it home without getting all scratched up like the year before, when this very tall and pleasant middle-aged man came up to us and started talking about the trees, how to choose em and how he used to do this all the time back in Canada or somewhere. 

So there I was, frantically side-eying her with alarm bells going off in my head; survival instincts telling me to back away, back away! and all the while thinking - weirdo or genuinely chivalrous/friendly/helpful guy?? Now I guess I may sound paranoid but this is Singapore and generally people don't just go up to strangers and start chatting, so it's not what we're used to. We don't often come across this particular breed here (to be honest) and so were naturally wary. At least up til today. So anyway the very genial Mr. Stanley then offered to help us to pick out a good tree, saw the trunk for us, load it in his van and drive us home. Seriously? Nobody has ever offered us a favor like that just out of the kindness of their hearts... with no ulterior motives... unless they're trueblue Christians of course. 

Now visions of serial killers, bloodied axes and getting ground up in a wood-chipper started dancing around in my head and I was like 'Papa God, I don't want to die today... is this dude for real or should we run screaming 'bloody murder!'? Right then Mr Stanley goes, "You guys look like nice Christian folks so I thought I'd help you out,"... and that confirmed it for me.  (before we left on our 'mission-trimpossible', we'd prayed and asked God to give us strength to get the tree home, and of course He had a better plan!) So anyway, we accepted Mr Stanley's gracious offer and lived to tell the tale! 

Turns out he wasn't a serial killer or some shady guy, just an excellent Christian brother who God sent as an angel in our time of need. Talk about a Christmas miracle! Thank you Papa God and thank you Mr Stanley, wherever you are! Ain't God just the coolest ever? Jehovah Ezer in the house! ♥