Sibu Masland Church

During our Sibu Trip (10 - 12 Sept Raya break), we visited Sibu Masland Methodist Church for their Sunday service.

It is really a super beautiful church, & i was super amazed by its super design.

(I can't find where i put my handphone cable due to the very forgetful me, so i can only search the picture of the church using google to show it here. When u meet me face to face, I can show u the pics i've taken, it's still in my hp.)

It's really breath-taking ...



(Photo courtesy of someone whom I dunno)

View other pics here ...

http://dr-david-ling.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post_25.html

http://sibu.org/bbs/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=5636

Really fantastic, isn't it?

A piece of my thoughts...

It would definitely cost a lot for such great masterpiece.
But then again, if people are attracted to the appearance of the church, then walks in then hears the gospel then become Christians, that would be great.

In my opinion, I would rather build smaller churches and have them scattered in more places. The reason:
1) The gospel can be spread in more places.
2) More convenient for people to go to church nearby their home.
Most important point whereby I think they neglect:
3) In smaller churches, people can fellowship with one another well. Will feel like in 1 big family. Will have deeper relationship with people and with God. In big churches like Masland Church (Sibu) or Mei Ann Church (Miri), we can't feel the sense of BELONGING. Whether we are new-comers, whether we go to sunday service, cell groups, etc.. nobody seems to care or even notice!

Just a piece of my thoughts. No offence or anything. After all, everything has its pros and cons. Just from which degree you are looking at =)

住進你心窩

Luv this song very much! Specially dedicated to my best friends, esp Lina & Victor ~ We dwell in one another's hearts.
And also not forgetting all my other friends that i've known throughout my life, you know who you are :)

You guys made my life a miracle!! Our friendship is meant to be forever & ever & ever! And you mean so much to me! ^^

VALUE

When you don’t value something, you won’t do anything productive with it. You won’t do anything with your life and future if you don’t value it. But the truth remains that you are valuable to God. You are His poem—the expression of His glory. He has gifted you uniquely, wired you and designed you to present you as a beautiful creation to be appreciated by the world.

Don’t let anyone rob you of your value to God. Don’t let anyone depreciate you and diminish the importance of your life to human society. The self-worth that you discover in Him is the firm foundation upon which you build your life. Your greatest value in life is your value to God!

You can know for a fact that people will never value you the way God does. Why? This is because the value that people place on you tends to be emotionally driven. If they are happy with you, you are wonderful and you are of great value to them. However, if they are upset with you, your value will change; it will drop. So it is important not to make the mistake of trying to draw our self-esteem and sense of value from other people. The end result would only be hurt and disappointment. It is important and wonderful for us to encourage and to give value to one another. But the reality is that the only One that can give you a consistent sense of worth and value is God.

Hence, my self-esteem is always intact and can no longer be shaken by people’s opinion about me. It does not mean I do not take people’s opinion into consideration. I do because that is important. However, their opinion does not shake the foundation of my sense of worth, because my greatest value is my value to my heavenly Father. And here’s the beautiful thing: Even when I mess up in my life, make mistakes and fall short of God's glory, God still values me the same!

I want to let you know that God loves you and your greatest value in life is your value to Him. He knows what He can do with your life and He has great plans for you. But they mean nothing if you don’t believe in them and don’t place the same value on your life that God places.

“Father, I declare my value in Your eyes. Thank You. I am special to You. I am Your poetry that You are writing. A story that You will tell. Thank You for Your love and care. No matter what happens, I will walk in my value to my Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen!”


p.s. I am not the author of this beautiful article. I don't remember where I found it, i copied & pasted it in a Microsoft Word where I kept it in my laptop long long time ago. And now when I read it again, the Holy Spirit has moved me into sharing it on my blog! Hope it would bring some encouragement to someone, somewhere ...

The amazing LOVE that brings forth ...

Some of us may be wondering WHAT Christians are celebrating on Good Friday & Easter day.
Let me tell you the 5Ws (Who, What, How, Why, When) of Good Fri & Easter:

1st of all, God created You & Me.
- We are created to have close relationship with God initially, but, because of our SIN, our close relationship with God was broken.
- What is SIN? It is any act of disobeying God, anything that displeases God. (Jealousy, unforgiveness, hatred, etc). These sins separate us from God.

When we do something wrong, we must face judgment, right?

God is fair & just.
Because of our sin, we face the JUDGMENT of God – Eternal Death! However;

GOD LOVES US (Me & U, every ONE of us individually)
- God sent us a SAVIOR, someone who’ll save us from eternal death.
- Who's the savior? Jesus Christ (God in the form of man).
- On Good Fri, Jesus was crucified on the CROSS – He paid for our penalty of sin, we do not have to face the judgment of death.

Can you imagine God’s amazing love?

Let me give you an illustration: Imagine A has a gun in his hand, he wanted to shoot B. If you were the father who loves B very much, do you just do nothing? OR, you would run over & save your son, even if that means you have to sacrifice your own life to die in his place?! I believe if you are father, you cannot bear to see your child die, you would rather die in his place to save his life.
THIS – is how much God (our heavenly Father)’s love is for us.

Back to the story …

Through Jesus’ death, you & me are free from the judgment of death! :)

BUT.. the story does not end here! The climax is just to begin … !!!

On the 3rd day after his death, Jesus rose from dead, called "RESURRECTION". The day of His resurrection is called “Easter day”!
- How do we know He has resurrected?
Well, it is clearly recorded in the Bible that 3 days later, Jesus’ tomb was empty! He appeared to His disciples & to many people, in His nail-pierced hands!!

Jesus has conquered death & has victory over death!! Amen!

BUT, why do we celebrate Easter? The victory is Jesus’ business – What’s that to do with me & you???
- Well, that’s because, Jesus has promised us that if we believe in Him,
NOT ONLY we are free from judgment of eternal death resulting from our sins,
BUT ALSO we’ll have eternal life to live with Him in Heaven, forever & ever ...

To conclude:
- Good Fri: It is a celebration of Jesus’ love for us that He is willing to die on the cross to pay our penalty of sins.
- Easter Day: It is a celebration of Jesus’ victory over death & because we believe in Him we’ll have eternal life.

If you say, "I want to receive Jesus’ free gift of love, that is, to be free from the judgment of sin & to receive eternal life! Now what should I do next?"

Pray the following prayer sincerely from your heart:

"Dear Lord Jesus, I admit I am a sinner.
I know I deserve eternal judgment, but I thank You for Your mercy & grace.
Thank You for dying on cross to pay for my sins because of your amazing love for me.
Right now, I receive You as my Lord & Savior.
I know that when I die one day, I'll spend eternity with You in Heaven, forever & ever. In Jesus Christ's name, Amen."

++-- JESUS, Lover of my Soul --++

G D
Jesus, lover of my soul
Em C
Jesus, I will never let you go
G D
You've taken me from the miry clay
Em C
Set my feet upon the rock and now I know
G D Em
I love you, I need you, though my world may fall
C
I'll never let you go
G D Em
My savior, my closest friend
C
I will worship you until the very end

Bits & pieces about my career path

My childhood dream was to be a renowned psychologist. That was because I love to deal with people, helping them to solve their problems. I like to influence people too, getting them to change their perspectives in life, esp on something I strongly believe in. I graduated from Curtin University in Accounting & Finance. There must be a big question mark now why I’m taking Accounting & Finance instead of Psychology. Well, my parents do not like the idea of me becoming a psychologist because they think psychologists do not earn much in Malaysia & it’s hard to find a job here too. There are right, in a way, & I’m someone who expects highly on myself so I chose Accounting & Finance, the "most technical & challenging" course in Commerce, not even dreaming of being an accountant, since I have no interest at all in accounting. It was a very hard time for me studying accounting, but I, as a result-oriented person, cannot bear to see myself getting bad grades. I took a long time to understand what is debit and credit. In my foundation studies, I kept on asking my lecturer on many confusing basic accounting theory; I remembered I kept on asking stupid questions during class until he said to me in front of my classmates: “Cheryl, do not let anyone say you are stupid, okay? In fact, I know you are a very smart girl”. I don’t know why but he always sees a bright future in me. =)
Not only him, but my many other lecturers as well. I'm so sorry to let you all down!

Then into my working world – Ernst & Young is my 1st permanent job after I graduated. I never thought of becoming an accountant but I just followed the trend. I thought auditing was more interesting than accounting but I was wrong. I felt like I’m just not myself. I used to get excited easily but there is nothing exciting looking at figures and invoices, debits and credits. I found something missing in my life – which is the excitement that would get me motivated. Somehow I ended up working as a Sales & Admin Executive at Jiajaya Sdn Bhd (a housing developer). The boss is one of my church friends, who offered me this position and made me think what I really wanted in life. He asked do I really wanted to be an accountant for the rest of my life? It was a struggle for me because on one hand, I’ve used all my uni life taking up accounting & finance, not to mention the course fee and all that, & I’ve also passed my 1st CPA paper; On the other hand, I can never visualize myself being an accountant 1 day. Deep inside me, I know I’m going to quit my accounting career path, the sooner or later. So, finally, I quit Ernst Young, but I never regretted working there, & never regretted taking up accounting & finance course in uni. That’s because wherever we go or whatever we do, we can always get something out of it, whether directly or indirectly.

Now I'm enjoying myself as a Sales & Admin Executive:) I'm an addict of phone-talking, & this job really satisfies that urge of mine. haha! Anyway, there are many challenges for me as well, as I have to deal with building plans, structural plans, constructions stuff which I never got the hang of it.

Where will my new career path lead to? I have no specific career goals at the moment, although i wish to have 1. I trust God's leading. Reminded me of this wonderful song, "God will make a way, where there seems to be no way ..."