Inspiration

3 personal stories from Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple:

Food for thought

Chuck Swindoll of Insight for Living discussed 10 things he has learned in almost 50 years of ministry during Catalyst Conference’s 8th session. Here is what he said:

Fifty years ago, I was a first year student at Dallas Theological Seminary. I was scared, unsure of myself, and fresh out of the Marine Corp. I did not know much about seminary.

I remember sitting in chapel, and a minister told me, “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” I am so proud of everything you are dreaming of and doing that I hope that you remember to leave room for the crushing.

10 Things Chuck Swindoll Learned in 50 Years of Ministry:

1. It’s lonely to lead. Leadership involves tough decisions.
The tougher the decisions, the lonelier it is.

2. It’s dangerous to succeed.
It is dangerous to succeed while being young. rarely, does God give leadership that young because it takes crushing and failure first.

3. It’s hardest at home.
Nobody at home is applauding you. They say, “Dad! You’re fly is open.”

4. It is essential to be real.
If there is one realm where phoniness is personified it is leadership. What I care about is that you stay real.

5. It is painful to obey.
There are rewards, yes, but it is painful nevertheless.

6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.

7. My attitude is more important than my actions.
Some of you are getting hard to be around. And your attitude covers all those great actions you pull off.

8. Integrity eclipses image.
What you are doing is not a show. And the best things you are doing is not up front but what you do behind the scenes.

9. God’s way is better than my way.
God is going to have His way.

10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility.

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 tells us that we must be willing to leave the familiar message without disturbing the Biblical message. We get that backwards. This was written in the first century, and now we are in the 21st century. The message stays the same. Don’t miss the message. As you alter the methods, don’t mess with the message.

Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. You will defend those things that don’t need defended.

Three Important Observations:

1. With every ministry a special mercy is needed.

2. In every ministry the same things must be renounced and rejected.
That is hiding shameful things, doing deceitful things, and corrupting truthful things. Guard against deception.

3. Through every ministry a unique style should be pursued.
We don’t preach or promote ourselves (it isn’t about us). We declare Christ Jesus as Lord (it’s all about Him). We see ourselves as bond-servants for Jesus Christ.

Five Statements Worth Remembering During Your Next 50 Years of Leadership:

1. Whatever you do, do more with others and less alone.
It will help you become accountable.

2. Whenever you do it, emphasize quality not quantity.

3. Wherever you go, do it the same as if you were among those who know you the best.
It will keep you from exaggerating. it will help keep your stories true. Your good friend will tell you things that others will not. They will hold you close to truth.

4. Whoever may respond to your ministry, keep a level head.

5. However long you lead, keep on dripping with gratitude and grace.
Stay thankful. Stay gracious.

(This summary created by Kent Shaffer at ChurchRelevance.com)

Original article from Catalyst Space

U2 Live Concert

The legendary rock group set yet another career record on Sunday night as the first band to broadcast a concert live on the popular video sharing Web site YouTube. The band performed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in front of a crowd of 100,000 while simultaneously, internet users from 16 countries around the world were able to tune in to the concert from the comfort of their own homes. Looks like God is using this band as a great influence to the world.

40 today

We had 40 people for service today, our highest attendance so far. Many new families and friends visited us today and we hope to see them coming again in the future. Do pray with us that we are able to assimilate the new families and friends in our church.

After service, we went to LaoBan’s place for lunch and we were surprised to see many other people from our church eating there too. Looks like we have helped Laoban to get more business. After lunch, we went with Luis and his family to look around for Christmas tree. We plan to decorate our church for Christmas this year. Hopefully our church will have more ‘Christmas feel’ during Christmas. Also pray with us that we will see more people join our church during this Christmas season.

Liverpool 2 – Man United 0

My favourite team Liverpool won Man United 2-0 yesterday. Below is the video of the goals:

Back in 2nd home…

Just came back from Singapore to Ecuador recently, feels like back in our 2nd home.

Our trip to Singapore was a fruitful one. We stopped over in Spain for 3 days to have a short holiday before heading back to Singapore. We were not expecting many friends at the airport as we told some of them that we will be heading home straight after arrival in Singapore. Still some of them turned up and we ate at the airport canteen. We ate Chinese Rojak, Indian Rojak, and Otah at the canteen. After that, Alan drove us to eat Katong Laksa as we had a craving for Laksa. It was really delicious.

We met with many family and friends and pastors over the 2 weeks in Singapore. Almost everyday, we met up with different people and ate different food. One of the most memorable catch up was when we celebrated Tony’s birthday over wine. We caught up with a few good friends and talked until 3am in the morning though they had to work the next day. Another one was when Wenjiang drove us to a Kelong in Johor and we ate seafood there. My mother also cooked different kinds of typical food for us everyday. She also took us on a tour walking around the bridges and bringing us to Sentosa. I think she has been to more places in Singapore than me now. We also celebrated my father-in-law’s 60th birthday at Sakae Sushi. It was good spending time with our loved ones.

Thank God for Julian and Serene who helped out in Ecuador when we were back in Singapore. Our people in church have learnt many things from them and they have given us suggestions on how we can improve our ministries here. We have started making changes and we pray that we will see more growth at the end of this year. Do pray with us that God blesses us with His wisdom and guides us in our decision-making. The trip back to Singapore has been a good break for us and now we are ready to run the next lap.