As you would not fail to notice, now there is a Daily Devotional on this blog. Just thought I would share with you guys what I read everyday. Do not think this is gonna be an everyday sort of thing, but will probably only post up those daily devotionals that I feel have a message that I feel a connection to.

On a similar note, a new year is upon us. And what a glorious one it has been. And I know in my heart things are only going to get better and better as the days turn into weeks and then into months.
Looking back at all that happened in 2007, it just fills my heart with pride to know that love truly overcomes and with God all things are indeed possible. 2008 presents its own challenges all of its own. But if 2007 is any indication, 2008 is going to be a great year for me and my family.

It has long been my inclination to make this blog more than just an avenue to record my thoughts and situations. And recent developments have only served to validate going in that direction. So from now on this blog will feature much more of my spiritual walk and how that all ties in with my daily life. There will be awesome testimonies, daily devotionals, thoughts and prayers. Hopefully my readers, feel free to air their own opinions.If anything else, I have some of the quietest readers about. I know they are there and faithfully read all the pitiful scraps I leave here, but hardly ever opine on what they feel about what I transcribe here. So hopefully in 2008, my readers will interact more with me.

There is so much about 2007 that I feel I should do a retrospective of all that transpired during one of the most significant years of my 'young' life.
Of course there was my solemnisation to my lovely wife in June. When we look back we remember it for many of the wrong reasons. But 2008 offers us an opportunity to heal those wounds and new hope in all the things that really matter.

So rather than dwell on the past, lets look forward to some of the goodies 2008 has in store:

- we are gonna start renovating the flat pretty soon. And once it is ready, we can then start to move stuff in. And then finally move in ourselves.

- We are also planning a wedding dinner at years end.

- Gonna be an uncle again for the 3rd time!

- plans to get a new car to replace good old Sunny

- Agnes just started at her 'dream job' at HSA. And she seems to be loving every moment of it thus far. Hopefully she has a long and fruitful career there.

- and so much,much more...

As Agnes is settling into her new job, we are behooved to go out and buy new clothes and accessories for her to wear to work. Hopefully on Saturday we will get to spend some 'us' time and see to it that Agnes looks her best at work.
Have to arrange to meet up Kaili to discuss more about the flat renovations. It has been an ardous task to say the least, trying to get our schedules to meet. We have had only one face-to-face meeting since the day we appointed her. Needless to say, we are getting a bit antsy about it. If this situation continues, then maybe we would be better off looking elsewhere. Kaili's services do not come cheap yet we have been left hanging in the air regarding what is to happen next. Maybe there is a perfectly good reason for the way things have been handled thus far. Or we have misplaced our expectations. But honestly, we got much better service from Mona and perhaps in retrospect we should have gone with her in the first place,otherwise we would not find ourselves in the predicament we are in now, with hardly anything concrete down on paper after so many months.
Of course Agnes being busy with her school and all played no small part, but surely Kaili could have given a better account of herself than she has to this point. She has made no intention to actually physically go to our flat for which she is designing, and based her ideas on the floor plans we gave her. And she seems rather preoccupied to find time in her schedule to accommodate us. So it seems that to meet up with her we have to take time-off and leave to meet her during office hours.
And that is not a road we will easily go down. Agnes has only just started in her new job, and doubt time-off or leave would be so easily granted. I myself have my own issues at work that makes it somewhat inconvenient to just leave the office at the drop of a hat.

I am also entitled to a maximum of 3 days marriage leave that has to be consumed a year from the date of registration. So by June 08, I have to take my allotment or forfeit it. Agnes mentioned an overseas trip in June or July, so hopefully I can utilise it then. If not then I would have to do it earlier just for the sake of things.

~DO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS~

The One Thing - Daily Devotional From New Creation Church

Give God's Word Priority And See Good Success     Joshua 1:8 8This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. In life there is good success and bad success. Bad success is the kind of success which robs you of time with your family, friends and church, and destroys your health and relationships. Good success, on the other hand, prospers you in every area of your life. Now, God wants you to enjoy good success and the key to this lies in what God told Joshua when he took over the reins after the death of his leader Moses — “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.” Spending time daily in God’s Word will give you godly wisdom which will make your way prosperous and give you good success. “Pastor, you make it sound so simple — all I need to do is spend time in God’s Word?” Well, just look at how Joshua’s life turned out in the end. When Joshua died, “they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash”. (Joshua 24:30) Joshua had a whole mountain for his inheritance! He was prosperous and successful! It was also said that Israel served the Lord, not idols or other gods, all the days of Joshua’s life. (Joshua 24:31) This means that while Joshua was around, people were impacted for God’s glory. And at the end of his life, a fulfilled Joshua had this to say, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) Having your family with you, loving God and serving Him, is the most important success and greatest prosperity that you can ever have.     Beloved, when God’s Word takes priority in your daily life, you will not only have a blessed bank account, but also a blessed ministry, family and life! © Copyright Joseph Prince, 2006. All rights reserved. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version ®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2006–2007 New Creation Church

It smells like Him

Thought I would share this inspiring story of how when even all hope seems lost, love finds a way:

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in
Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room
of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.
Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced
themselves for the latest news.

That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had
forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an
emergency Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound
nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.

Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.
"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as
he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through
the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does
make it, her future could be a very cruel one"
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the
doctor described the devastating problems Dana
would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she
would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she
would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions
from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-
year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they
would have a daughter to become a family of four.
Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away
But as those first days passed, a new agony set in
for David and Diana. Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous
system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress
only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't
even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to
offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Dana
struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of
tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to
their precious little girl. There was never a moment
when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by,
she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce
of strength there. At last, when Dana turned two months old. her parents
were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.
And two months later, though doctors continued to gently
but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal
life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had
predicted.

Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young
girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for
life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or
physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl
can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the
end of her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her
home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap
in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother
Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Dana was
chattering nonstop with her mother and several other
adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.
Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do
you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting
the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied,
"Yes, it smells like rain."
Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like
rain."
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her
small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest." Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped
down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the
members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months
of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to
touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she
remembers so well.

The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginning, but not its end.
.
~DO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS~