Psalms 91

I was browsing through a Christian bookstore the other day, and I happened to notice a book about Psalm 91.

The guys and I were worshiping God at my house when Isaiah gave a word of encouragement from Psalm 91.

I was playing guitar for W539 and Yufen too encouraged us from Psalm 91.

All this in a span of 4 days. Interesting. I think I'll meditate on the Psalm. I really like the last part of the Psalm:

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
(Psalm 91:14-16)

Munney!

Right now I'm looking to give tuition or guitar lessons for $20-25/hr.
Or make websites.
I believe that God will provide as I take a step of faith :)

NS Allowance is too little. And I spend too much on transport (Argh!)
But God's will is that I'll be financially free. It must happen in Jesus' name!

"And God is able to make ALL grace abound toward you, that you, always having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may have an abundance for EVERY good work."
2 Cor 9:8

Unmerited Favour

I was called upon by my former RSM to assist him in the website he was in charge of. He spoke with my lieutenant, and I found myself within the confines of Sungei Gedong Camp this morning. Finishing what I was instructed to do before lunch, I had the rest of the day off. Praise the Lord.

As I walked out of the gates of Armour Headquarters, I saw a statue of a tank in the middle of the road, its cannon staring proudly into in the sky. Beneath its tracked feet glimmered four silver words, chiseled out of polished metal. They were:

ONCE ARMOUR

ALWAYS ARMOUR

The glorious declaration implied that those who joined the ranks of the Armour regiments would proudly be part of the Armour family forever.

Not me.

Not that I'm not proud of being in Armour, of course. To be politically correct, I had some good experiences there. But for me, it was Once Armour, Now Engineer. And I love the welfare culture of the Singapore Combat Engineers!

Nevertheless, today's experience triggered this blog post. (I felt like doing a blog post *winks*)

Recently I remembered that prior to my enlistment, I prayed hard that I would NOT be posted to Sungei Gedong, after hearing Yaozhong's dismaying experiences there. I prayed instead of being posted to Nee Soon Camp (rumored to be like 'heaven'), Seletar Camp or Khatib Camp, due to their close proximity to my home.

Well, you know the story. I received my enlistment letter, and the words 'Armour HQ' flashed mockingly at me.

But God has a way of answering prayers. 1 year after my enlistment, I crossed the gates of the famed Nee Soon Camp. Turns out that the rumors are true. Lucky you, Qiming. One and a half months after that, I was posted to Seletar Camp. God is good.

He has been good throughout my army life. I went through a few hardships, including the toughest moment of my life, but God was gracious. Those difficult moments were valued lessons, the 'rotan' of a loving father. It seems that His favour follows me, no matter which camp I am in, so much so that some around me become jealous, and even dislike me.

Still, I thank Him for His unmerited favour.

I believe that right now is a season of decisions. God wants to build self-control in me - Responsibility over Comfort. May His grace be sufficient for me.

"And those who are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Gal 5:24

Seek First

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

and all these things shall be added to you."

Freaky Fred

My bro Isaac was recently watching an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog titled Freaky Fred.

As I child, I always felt that it was bizarre and macabre, but now I love it!
I totally love the poem - the guy who wrote has great command of the English Language and has a real knack of crafting poems.
The voice actor of Fred is a genius.

The most hilarious part was when Fred shaved the pancakes into Courage's mouth LOL!

Okay enough ado, here's the video:

Courage the Cowardly Dog - Freaky Fred

Here's the lyrics of the poem. Some parts are hard to understand, I had to think hard or search definition for words. I added "*" and "^" for unfamiliar words or phrases which I interpreted :)

Hello new friend. My name is Fred.

The words you hear are in my head.

I say I said my name is Fred.

And I've been...

Very naughty.

The story I'm about to tell

I tell you I will tell it well

Is of my dear aunt Muriel

And just how I've been...

Naughty.

Voila, the farm. My aunt lives here.

With precious pup and husband dear.

My heart beat fast as I drew near.

I felt so nice...

and Naughty.

I thought just how excited they

Must be that I would come today.

They'd shout, "Come Fred! Huzzah! Hoo-ray!

Dear boy, you look so...

Naughty."

That's when my tired eyes beheld

A doggy dog! Like dog he smelled.

D-O-G is what he spelled.

And that's how I spell...

Naughty.

Alone was I, with tender Courage.

And all his fur, his furry furrage*.

Which, I say, did encourage

Me, to be quite...

Naughty.

It was a day I'll not forget;

The day I first met my pet.

Oh, what a lovely gift to get.

I'd never felt so...

Naughty.

My fuzzy friend is what he was.

This darling little ball of fuzz.

And, oh, such fuzz, such fuzz, it does

Demand that I be...

Naughty.

He looked at me, his fetching eyes,

And fetching fur did hypnotize,

I filled with joy, I filled with sighs;

And that was when I got...

Naughty.

His dripping hair, this droopy curl,

Unfurls sweet memories of a girl.

With tresses oh, they twist and twirl.

And tempt me to be...

Naughty.

Barbara, my love was named;

And her fair hair, a mane untamed;

Until one evening, I'm ashamed,

I got a little...

Naughty.

The look upon my young love's face

Was sweet as lace**!

But in this case, I realized she

Needed space***.

I never more was naughty.

Well... maybe not never.

Dear cur, your fur and fleece remind

Of nothing found in humankind.

But for one fellow, who did find

Me, to be in a certain mood.

Into my shop he walked one day,

With bush above, and beard bouquet.

"That's no toupee****," I prayed, "No way."

I could help but be...you know...

I'd never seen such hair before!

His bangs*****, they sang! His neck, it beckoned!

Eyebrows, armpits, all were reckoned!

Soon, I figured, what the heck!

And that's how I was...

Naughty.

But then my landlords^ did presume

To free me from that porcelain tomb^^,

And ferry to a private room^^^,

Your hero, ever doughty^^^^.

Goodbye, dear aunt. I'll miss your farm.

And Eustace's ebullient^^^^^ charm.

And farewell Courage; what's the harm,

If I was slightly...

Naughty.

With Love, Fred.

*furrage is not a real word, but it is a play on the word fur to mean something full of fur.
**lace is a delicate decorative fabric made from cotton, silk, etc., woven in an open web of different symmetrical patterns and figures
***needed space is a phrase to imply a break-up of a relationship
****toupee a small hairpiece to cover partial baldness
*****bangs means fringe (in the United States, Canada and the Philippines)
^landlords in this case refers to the staff of the "Home for Freaky Barbers"
^^porcelain tomb refers to the toilet
^^^private room refers to solitary confinement
^^^^doughty means brave
^^^^^ebullient means cheerful, full of energy

The Writer's Feel

One of the things about creative writing that really irks me is the constant need for inspiration, or what I would like to refer to "the feel". In fact, the feel is needed for almost everything creative: composing music... writing lyrics... designing games... doing a blog post about feels...

The second thing about creative writing that really irks me is that once you have inspiration, it disappears! At one moment, I feel that this makes good writing, at the next I don't feel like writing it. In camp, I had a sudden feel to do a post about an old song "Through It All" by Hillsong, and about how I watched Calvin singing it in his suave no. 1 uniform on his wedding day, and how I felt impacted by watching it even though I couldn't hear a thing, but I don't feel like doing it now. Oh wait, I think I just did.

I suppose that if I actually forced myself to do it, I may get the feel back. Or I may not.
And that's not very inspiring.

You might wonder, why in the world is this dude talking about feels and writing. (sounds kinda carnal talking about making decisions based on feeling)

The short answer is that this dude felt like it.

The longer explanation consists of 2 reasons, and the first of which would be that I've been reading The Salmon Of Doubt by Douglas Adams, and his comic writing style got to me. Yup, I stol- I mean employed some of his essence into this post, with a tinge of my own of course. I love most of the book, except the parts where he debates about God being an artificial entity of man's inclination and imagination. Oh well, I guess it's good to understand the atheist mindset. I would want to read his hit title The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

The Salmon Of Doubt

A humorous book that looks at life and things around us from an interesting perspective.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

I wanna read this!

The second reason (hold on, I just recalled my inspiration to write about 2010 being a year of change. Anyway...) is that I'm thinking of writing a story. I've always liked fantasy worlds, epic adventures, mighty champions and colossal battles. Add interactive entertainment in and you have a Game. Strange thought, that I'm into writing and the arts in recent years, as I always thought I was more of Maths and Science student - my grades bear witness of that. I'm a hybrid perhaps?

My first passion is still games though. It's just that I have had so many story ideas over the years that I never really penned down (or rather, typed out). Actually I did try to start to type out a few, but lacked the resolve to complete them. I now realize that discipline is more important than inspiration. Then, one might ask, why now?

I felt like it.