Recently i listened to a sermon by Ravi about time. How we spend our time and the importance of it. One thing that stuck me was about making our lives count and do we know why we do what we do. Cliche rite? You and I have probably heard this a hundred times already but the speaker went on to talk about how Jesus lived His life so fruitfully and He actually stopped to take note of the things in His life. Next He went on to talk about goals and dreams and ambitions. He gave this example of a man who set 150 goals when he was 30 years old and people thought that it will be impossible to fulfil cause some were really hard to accomplish. But by the age of 50, he has already accomplished 130 of them which included travelling to a few countries to do missions. COOL!!!

This got me thinking about how i am spending my time and if i have any goals in life. Some goals are: church planting (maybe africa), nie group (but dun know what abt it), teachers ministry (but not too hopeful about it). And I realised that is all!!! Oh my... no wonder I find myself distracted, listness and oftentimes losing focus, zeal and caught up in emoing due to circumstances.

When I was in NUS, I realised that as a young believer I had dreams and goals. Though they were small, but they were goals and dream that kept me going and focused. Along the way God moulded my motivation and the intentions behind these dreams and goals too!!

Every Christian has some form of goal and ambition:
1) To know God more
2) To experience God more
3) To love people
4) To love God more
5) To do missions
6) To meet God in heaven
7) Family to come to know God

But if you realised these are so Vague and general!!!
1) We need Godly short term goals and dreams for God so that we can keep track of our journey with God and keep us moving forward.
2) Do you have a mission statement you live by? A Godly mission statement?
3) Do you live your daily life just going through a motion or are you living life with purpose? Do you ponder why you are so busy?

Jesus was very intentional and deliberate in His 3.5 yrs of ministry and look at the amount of things He did and the extent of influence and impact He had on the people. When Jesus went to Samaria to meet the Samaritian woman was it by chance? Most importantly, Jesus live for the joy of the Lord and He live for His Father. He Sought God in His daily life and His goal was to fulfil His purpose on earth. Jesus's final goal was the Cross but in the 3.5 years He did much more than went to the cross. He loved people, spent time with people, taught people and set as example to His disciples.

My goals in NUS:
1) To be a pastor (when i was a really young believer, haha)
2) To imitate my leaders and to grow in my word and that i will be able to share with people about God's love
3) To experience miracles from God
4) Bring at least one person to Christ every semester
5) To be a shepherd and take care of God's sheep
6) To rise up as a leader and to take care of God's sheep
7) To do well in my studies and make it to Honours
8) To be able to serve God freely
9) To be salt and light in my family
10) Bring my family and relatives to come to know God

Out of the 10 above (that i recap) 8 were fulfiled. Only the pastor and family coming to know God were not but still waiting. For the pastor one... hahaha... i want to be a church planter :)

Then the shock came... I realised that after i left NUS, i had no more goals, dreams or ambitions. Fear of having big dreams, fear of being disappointed, fear of being laughed at by people cause I have dreams. Most importantly, i forgot to evaluate why am I doing what I am doing and what does God wants me to fulfil when I am here on earth? No wonder i am so easily distracted, emo, lose focus and lost.

Other than preparing to be a teacher and to go church planting 4 yrs later and for my family and relatives to come to know God, tt's all!!!! I have stopped dreaming big dreams for God and set goals in life. What about specific goals and short term goals that God would like me to do in this phase of life? Do i know? Am i aware and am I working towards it and fulfiling them together with God.

I know why i am a teacher and i know generally what a christian teacher is called to do. But specifically? Goals? I do not have.... Many people live life going through the motion and even though some may know the reasons for their living and doing, they often lack zeal and purpose. After I realised these, I am determined to set short term goals and not just say i want to be a teacher and church planting and just wait and do nothing.

Do not be afraid to dream big for God :) Look at our Hope mission statement. It is such as bold statement but is it a Godly statment? Yes it is!! Many may think that we are crazy to come up with such a mission statment of planting churches in Singapore and all around the world but it is with such as bold mission statement that we are able to move forward and look forward and strive forward and grow in faith. Have something excited about and impossible with man but POSSIBLE with GOD!!!

As I was thinking about this and praying, some of these came to my mind
(These are really bold dreams and ambitions)

In this lifetime:
1) Plant 5 churchs in my life (africa and china)
2) Go on ministering trips to different places every year to do missions, strengthening and teaching
3) Stay in Hongkong for at least 1 year to impact my relatives there
4) Start a teacher's ministry in Hope church
5) Have a NIE community that is big enough to be a sub d
6) Family to come to know God
7) Relatives to know Christ
8) Learn driving
9) Stage a drama that will impact people and at a large setting
10) To disciple teachers
11) To plant a CG of students in my school after 1 year
12) To write songs for musical plays
13) To do masters in education
14) To be able to sell my paintings
15) To dance for God
16) Stage dances for praise and worship
17) learn keyboard
18) Get promoted to subject head in 2 years of teaching
19) In charge of a CCA, so that i can impact more students
20) Pionner NIE
21) Bring at least 2 teachers a year to come to know Christ
22) Get married to someone who really loves God and will serve God together in the missions field and give our lives to Christ
23) To pray for people in Jesus's name and people get healed
24) Set up some kind of business
25) Conduct workshops specific for girls in school (emotions, relationships)
26) Bring students to exchange program (hongkong would be nice:))
27) To grow in knowledge in terms of the subjects biology and chemistry (esp biology)
28) Move to another Country to do missions after 2014.
29) To be able to share gospel fluently in mandarin
30) To be able to share gospel in basic cantonese
31) The songs that i write are sung by people and in church, used by people to worship God
32) Able to sing and play my own songs
33) To perform miracles and signs and wonders in the name of Jesus
34) To be involved in Schools dramas and plays


Initially i only came up with 20 things and now i have 34!!! Interesting... haha... Let's see when will these be fulfilled :) haha... The list does not stops here! I am still adding on to my list. Woohoo!!! Super excited now :) hahaha... Excited cause there are things for me to look forward to and to wait upon God and to seek Him and allow Him to reveal things to me slowly and bit by bit. See how and where God leads me and how He plans to use me and work through me as i continue to pursue Him and surrender my life completely to Him!!!

 

Signing off at 12:42 PM