Lornie Cell; Unity in the body of Christ

Today God led me to read Ephesians 4; unity in the body of Christ. To share with the cell on the unity that we need to have to stand together to then use our calling to reach out to the people around us. I was quite surprised by myself as I shared with the cell, as I was amazed how God can use me to perhaps "rub off" that passion to others. I pray that today people can be encouraged and all together work towards making this a church for God.

Like what Eric shared to use the energy in my sphere of influence.

Thank you Lord.

Love,
Jewel

Passion Kuala Lumpur 2008.

During the conference, I looked around at the thousands of people and wondered to myself, I am just one person here in this huge hall looking for an answer, looking for God to hear me, and reveal Himself to me, the rest of the thousands must be doing the same thing too, and they might have even greater passion, greater eagerness than me. How do I know, that God you hear me?

Then at the end of the conference, they had to do some extra songs, and Chris Tomlin sang Indescribable,

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

And I literally broke down, because in the midst of so many of His sons and daughters, He showed me that He hears me. Cos He knows even each of the stars by name.

Isaiah 40:26

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

Eric sent me this verse in the morning cos i shared with them what happened, and I thought it will be great to be an encouraging verse to Christians and pre-Christians alike!

Amazing Testimonies at the conference, I really felt so much for making God's name known throughout the world. In the past, I use to think, i must be someone great so that many may come to know Jesus through me, but i realised in the conference. Louie said this, God may call people differently, some to be big, some to be small, some to be famous and some to not to be.

I want my life to make your name famous. Saying yes to jesus, and going wherever he is going. And to whatever questions. Isaiah 26.8

But we are all making disciples for God. The most amazing verse i learnt

Isaiah 26:8,

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, ^[a]
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

that all I need to do is to say "Yes, Lord" and let God do the rest.

Louis said that all we need to know is that we need to infiltrate culture, to be the best that you can be, to let God supernaturally help us and not only by our talents and gifts.

He spoke about Grace; 2 corinthians 5:13-21:

13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I finally understood, what Grace was about, felt like for the first time, I knew God.

Many people think that we are sinners, and God is perfect, it is such a huge difference, so how do you get across the gap back to God.

A lot of people will say that we need to make right what we made wrong. Grace is spanning the gap to me. God will do what we cannot do. God came down and make it to you. Jesus faced what we faced, and he lived among the temptations and the desires, but he was faithful to God in every way. At the cross, God did a transaction that blew our mind, he put all our wrong onto His son that was perfect. Jesus gave his life as a payment, He paid the price for me. We get a brand new person in Christ when we have a relationship with Him.

The cross should make you go crazy and not just a calm resounding: "Amen brother". Sometimes you have got to be in the right time. In the world but not of the world. We can talk to anyone, we can be anybody. Put me anywhere, i got gifts talents, put me where people are.

Many songs touched my heart in Passion. Indescribable, "Sing, Sing, Sing", "God of this City"!

Its amazing, I am believing God for greater things!

Amen.

Jewel in this City.

The urgency in life

The urgency in life as compared to trusting that God will take care of my needs.

I am wondering. I came home and saw my dad sleeping, with muscle pain relievers sticked all over his arms. I felt ashamed, that i am unable to provide for my dad to stop working. Makes me feel inspired to work harder towards my goal. As well as to trust God that He loves my dad more than I know or will ever understand. Thus, God will take care of him too.

Now my one wish is for my family to be saved. And Jerome's family to be saved. For then, we will be relieved to at least know that it is done.

I need to focus. I need to be able to hold the fort!

Amen.

How to hear from God?

Sitting out in the alfresco area of our church, starts me thinking about redefining the lifestyle that i have been leading for the past 25 years.

Finally finished reading Joyce Meyer's "How to hear from God" It took me 2 months to finish reading the whole book, and yet some parts are forgotten already.. These few months of my life have been the most aimless and uninspiring moments I think i ever had so far..

The things that God has done for me are tremendous but my weak and uninspired self does not seem to be focusing on anything. And I seem to be stagnating at where I am.

Redefining my life: To trust God that He will direct my steps, one step at a time. To be at PEACE with the world and everyone else. God blesses my family with a little golden retriever puppy: Doogy! Redefining what my life means, what my purpose is in my life.

The latest book I aspire to finish would be: I Dare you to embrace life with passion; Joyce Meyer. When I was at the darkest moment, God led me to read the preface of this book. May the Lord reveal his revelation to me.

This is really a great place to relax and indulge in some self reflection..

So many choices to make, so many people to account for. Ask what is God's plan for this. Whether or not I feel peace to do any of the above.

God, please help me to close doors of opportunity if you think i should not be walking down that road.

Amen.

Organizing my life

Was getting quite excited about the new additions and the new changes in my life. Taking up singing as my passion is something that i have always dreamed of but never ever started. How much of it will be a start of something new I am not sure. But its very rare that I am having that much desire for it. Its always been there but never something that is so real and so strong.

Of course the pressures are even higher.

Need lots of preparation and time scheduling.

God help me in this journey.

Amen

Success...

"From a Banker to a Baker..." these were the words that caught my eye from the magazine: Vanilla.

Almost immediately i took it off the shelf and without perusal went ahead to make payment. At this moment in time, these words are crucial to me. I am contemplating, what is success? What is my passion? Are there any out there who thinks like me? We all strive for a future which we thought; we had it all planned.

We came through the system, fought through our education system. Found a good job that pays well, and struggled through the days and in no time realise that commitments have gotten more, and seemingly we seem to have no other time for our passions...

But till the day our tolerance level reaches its max.. We are at our crossroads.

I came to mine. And the most inspiring thing that happened to me is to find this magazine. There were so many ladies that have went through the same stage as me. And have courageously stepped out in Faith..

In this age, to be able to step out of our comfy careers and get started on our passion is really remarkable. Many a times, I contemplated to give up my dream. To give up my dreams to the realism of financial pressure. But i think our creator above never wishes for us to give up.

I really would encourage many to read the magazine.. Its different truly.

Its real women issues.

Even today in church, Pastor Frankie shared about Success.. or rather it was actually on THOUGHTS.

I am sitting in my room now, thoughts are already encompassing my mind. With the music in the background.. "All that I am, all that I do.. U.R.Y" Beautiful...

Just as I was about to complain about all that I am doing, God sends the sermon message across to me beautifully. Can I do it as unto the Lord?

"You are why I sing, you are why i love?"

I feel happy doing Hungrrry, being able to serve and in future try my baking.

I wanted to complain why is it only me that takes it seriously but i think, i cannot force people to take it as seriously as me. I can only inspire people. And to be a leader, i need to be a servant.

So apt, "Be transformed by the renewal of the mind" was the first words I hear from Pastor Frankie,

We have great potential to do great things for God. All we need to do is to capture our thoughts. God has assigned us and anointed us for greater things.

But what are this great things:

It can be as small as helping the old lady collect cans for a living. Or as big as Mother Theresa helping the poor in the world.

All these are great things, it just depends on the angle and the perspective we look at things.

Not everyone is called to be a Superstar, or a great politician, or a great docter. But everyone is called to do something great in one's life.

I want to pray for a Paradigm shift in my thinking.

"Reprocess your thinking process; put on the mind of Christ."

Pressing toward the Goal

Philippians 3

12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[d] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

God showed me this verse, just as I was feeling burnt out, just as I was afraid and just had a little argument with Jerome.

He is afraid as well, of the life ahead. And I do not want to hold him back from his success. I will be the reason and the motivation for his success.

And as God calls us to press on, we will press on in life and achieve his purpose for us.

Amen.

Taking the harder path

I realised that life has been easy, these past 8 months. Resting, eating, sleeping, enjoying life. Though paradoxically, i am not enjoying it much. I aspire more than these. But I am only willing to put it lesser than it is. Thus, why then in the world will I be able to get the reaped harvest.

All along in life, I have allowed myself to fall into the trap of mediocrity, in fact I tell myself that i am above average. Actually I am mediocre, and perhaps lesser than mediocre. I expect less of myself. How then can i expect others to expect more of me. I think that my personality or character will shine more than my appearance. Like what Pastor Kong said, it is those that think they will normally be more eye catching like mary and martha, martha feels that she has done a lot for church, she is the outspoken one, with initiative and zest to scurry around and be busy. But she was in fact unlike mary, who sat at Jesus' feet and asked for more of him. I am Martha. Busy scurrying around trying to change church, change lives, when I myself am not hungry for the word of God, why then should anyone else that I am trying to influence be.

Martha, is too busy, too full of herself and her own capabilities. I need to step aside, and just be in the presence of the Lord. For once, just dwell and not think that I have contributed so much to church.

I have been excaping all this while. Escaping from the truth and the reality. I have been lazy and unconsistent. I need to change. Its time I learnt how to be a woman. There will not be any Fairy Godmother, who will appear and change me immediately into a Princess. Its not going to be as easy as it seems in the movies. People who made it in life, are all self taught, and self learnt. They aspire and dream, then they go about finding the way to do it. Make full use of their resources to do all that they are able to do.

I have decided that I will face up to my reality and work towards my dream, be disciplined and not be lazy. Be the one that God wlll be proud of.

I will make myself out to be the woman i want to become.

Lord, help me, to walk the path that I should walk, graciously and I will be able to fly higher than an eagle.. I will be able to soar for the Lord.

Amen

Jewel

Decisions

"Its not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are." Roy Disney.

I read this same phrase or rather am seeking to understand this same idea while reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective people. What are the inner core values? MY personal mission statement in life. I can seek to make tonnes of money. And neglect whats most important, or seek to add value to what I can achieve and yet be comfortable. Or more than comfortable. Property and Banking. To make a choice seems so difficult but according to Roy Disney, its as easy as ABC. Thats when you know what your values are.

What are my values? When the author asked me to picture my Funeral, picture what my family, friends and colleagues would say about me, I pictured them remembering all the good times we spent together, having coffee, having fun, making sushi, cracking lame jokes, travelling together. I didnt picture them to remember me as someone chasing money. Or rather, I valued time more than money. I will strive hard of course, but looking at how Jerome works in Property, would I really want that? Or would I want my weekends to be peaceful..

There are people who are successful and owning properties while working.

Its not how much you earn, its how much you save and invest.

Its a long journey upwards, but I guess life will be like that.

Signed,
Jewel Tan

Leadership

Its true what Jerome said yesterday of me; I am lost, depressed. And most importantly tired out, thinking I do too much, thinking that I have sacrificed much. Looking back on the days that I have seeked to prove my worth in the bank. But the days are in the past and I have to learn what I need to learn from those lessons. Whether I am ready to accept the huge responsibility that God might have for me. The plans that God has in store for me. To be self employed or rather to go out on my own at a time like this to explore seems fearful. But God will always be there to hold my hand should I fall. The qualities of a leader I read from simpletruths.com gave me new light. The story of Kindness, and yet not expecting anything in return, tat is what I really call an act of kindness. So I see it that sacrifice without expecting anything, without recognition, or complaints is the truest form of rock solid leadership. I need to learn how to do advanced planning and to influence those that I need to influence.

2 weeks from now, I need to take cell. Lord, I pray that you will give me the strength and the ideas and the words you wish for me to share about. Lord, may you take over and let the influence that you wish to have be imparted.

I need strength and most importantly discipline as I step out. I cannot turn back and look and think that the world will stop for me. Only take what I can take. The discipline I had when I first joined Citi. The drive and determination. I will need to succeed to give my parents what they should deserve and before any illnesses or old age comes upon them, I would like them to enjoy life. Most importantly I wish to inspire Jerome and be the woman behind his success. That his family will be ready to accept Christ and most importantly for them to move to another level in life. I must do it. There is no one that will help me but myself. I will trust in the Lord and soar on Eagles wings. Let my life be a testimonial to others and may I be a great leader unto you Lord. I pray that you will give me the Long-term vision, and the strive for excellence in all that I do. That I will Plan, I will be disciplined. And my enthusiasm never be killed... It’s never by me alone... Lord let me take on this responsibility and t sacrifice without complaints, to have the humility in myself, to influence and change lives, and only those that I am able to change Lord. and the Perseverance to go on...

I need to be prepared, to let my siblings take on a new level in life, for my parents to be saved. To change myself for once and for all... to not accept mediocrity as a norm. But to take on my charge in this life. As William Penn said, I will only pass through this life once. I need to make the most out of it, for I will only have one chance. Once chance to be 25. Only once to pass through 5th June 2007.. once its gone, it’s gone forever.

I need to take charge of my life on my own, with God's help. I cannot wait and hide no more. Time waits for no man.

Isaac once said that I will be able to make the devil fear me for what I can do.. Jerome said many a times, that if I put my heart and soul into anything, I will be able to do it. Mr. Ong once said that he is sure I am capable to be successful, all my colleagues thinks I can make it. Dede always thinks I can do it if I set my heart to it. Nicole and Sean think so too. Even Aunty Gwen once said that Jewel, you will the light that shines bright for many to come to Christ. Even Cyn's mum thinks that of me.

Inside of me, I am the only one who thinks that I cannot. I am the only one who thinks tat I cant. I am the only one with the fear.

Lord let me be courageous in you and dare to dream and aspire to fly.

Let my life be glorified unto you.

Amen.

Jewel Tan

God's Miracle Blessings

Its been an amazing journey for this loan, I was confident of going to meet my customer. But God uses extreme situations to allow us to see that it can only be God and no one else, its not us! When you take care of God's business, he makes sure your business is taken care of. And he showed it to me today. He gave me the approval, and even before i asked for it. Thank you Jesus! So exciting! I need to also learn my lesson, that God has for me. Never to go to an appointment without making sure the customer is alright with the terms and conditions in it. Make sure you think for the customer and if u were in their shoes would you accept the loan?

Its all about empathy and also to be prepared in your field. How do you present a legal document without knowing what are the contents? And I need to learn my lesson, never to "smoke" my way out. I need to add value to myself and learn the terms. That is when I am a different sales person and I can get my pool of customers. Be disciplined now, and keep to my listing. Always update my agents leads, cold call leads, and hot leads. Start cold calling and getting new leads. May God bless me here and lead me to where he wants me to be.

Amen

Jewel

Doing Business

God always has a greater reason and sometimes we are so blinded by our present that we cannot see the future. I kept questioning God, why he placed me in this place, why SME banking? I trusted in myself, my own vision, my own strength. I did not trust that God will take care of my family burdens financially. But today i ahd some clue of why God place me there.

I met a customer today that blessed my heart, there was a conviction in my heart to strive and try harder for the customer although all the odds were against it. and also I knew that i might not be paid for it. But I just wanted very much to help. And to my pleasant surprise, he is a Christian, and he prayed... he prayed that God might help him to get the loan if it was meant to be.. God is amazing...it can only be Him at work...

He shared with me, the blessings and miracles of God.. how he blessed him.. He said, when he asked God for a thousand, God gave him a million. When he asked God for a million, God gave him millions, I pray now that no problem come over this loan, I declare it in Jesus name to cover it with the blood of the lamb, that this will be a testimony unto God! He made me see that God is there. He said one last thing: Fear God. It was exactly what I read in the Bible, Ecclesiastes that everything is meaning less but Fear God and enjoy what he gives us.

I learnt then not to be a quitter, not to listen to what others have to say but to trust in God and to give him the glory. I was very confident today to sign the loan, but then God taught me a lesson, to know that I need to be prepared and there are lots of things to learn to add value to myself.

Both my customers that i met today told me that in Business there are bound to be failures and people cheating them of money. Its a dark world out there... but God is the light... I think God wants me to be prepared, for what i do not know.. but its all in God's hands..

Amen