What's better than one speaker? TWO speakers!!!

HEY HEY HEY!! 

Once again, welcome to the Firebrands' blog! 

As usual, we had a short prayer session at 1915 hours in which we all . . . Pray! 

Moving on, we had Leroy to do the icebreakers to explain about the rules that will make instead of break Firebrands.
Here are the rules as far as I can remember :-
- Digital gadgets are NOT to be used during sessions (calling, SMSing, playing games, etc). Digital bibles leh? Well, they're not encouraged either.
- Young people are often thought to be a bit lazy nowadays, so its time to prove those who said it wrong! Be sporting and do participate in the activities planned by the person taking the stage :)
- Knock knock. Who's there? Aihh. Aihh who? Aihh love you... *Ba-dum-tss* Yes, if a boy-girl relationship (BGR) is in your mind/ if you're in one now, do inform your parents, and the leaders to prevent any bridges from getting broken along the way.


And Zepheniah comes along with a mic in his hand to sing a song to get us grouped for icebreaker.

So, everyone is grouped to 4 groups, but only two will play against each other at one time due to possible lack of space. Each group stands on one piece of cloth, and their objective is to simply fold the cloth downside up/upside down without getting off of the cloth. Sounds easy? ;)

One does not simply wear socks of a different colour at the same time, Vanessa

Well, it is easier if people like Gerald are in your team.. Just saying

"Must. Not. Fall. Off. The. Imaginary. Cliff"

And that's how we win it

Quote from Joshua Tan - "One. Two. Three. EVERYONE JUMP!"

And of course, worship time - you're doing it wrong if you think its just a time to train your 
vocal chords for yourself. God gave you a voice, why not show Him what you can do with it?

As everyone settled in their seats, waiting for the speaker's (or rather, speakers') session, two people most probably shivered and bit their nails off hoping that the other goes up first. Yep, its young preachers' night!

Well, as it goes by the saying, "Ladies first", Beverly had no choice but to be the first one up while Jonathan most probably jumped up for joy. :P

Its one of our basic 5 senses God gave to us to complete us. Its a skill physically enhanced by a tissue flap protruding from our head that looks like a cave. And that skill is listening :) 

From what I heard/listened, it is :-

To pay attention to sound, or in proper English, to give ear.

It isn't just something you get from birth, but it is a skill gained. 

-Sometimes, we hear things, but we don't listen. In other words, we don't bother about the sound

that causes these vibrations in our eardrums. 

-To listen is to understand, analyse, and to give thought about what is being heard. 

Here's a "theory" to better explain the importance of listening. God gave us only one mouth but two ears so that we listen more than talk. Get the point?

-Animals need to listen for their survival, be it for hunting, or for running away from the jaws of fearsome predators. Athletes need to listen for the sound of the gunshot as a false start could jeopardize their career. So, listening is important. What are you listening to? "Beverly's voice".

It is important to guard your ears.

Do you know that there are many songs nowadays that contain subliminal messages?

Listen to what's right and not to what's wrong. 

Listening opens up a way for a good conversation to take place.

- As it is mentioned in 1 Kings 19:11-12, God only spoke in a gentle whisper to Elijah after all the natural disasters had passed. In other words, spend time to listen and not just complain and ask from God all day. give Him a chance to talk to you.

Next up, we have Jonathan taking hold of the mic. Preach it, brother!


Faith. Love. Acknowledgement. These three he highlighted on.

Faith
First, you have to realise that

In the same way, faith by itself, if its not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)

and

For we live by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7)

Faith is something to be felt. It isn't something to be seen. Its believing in something we can't see. Like air, we can't see it, yet we know its there. Get it?

Life doesn't come without its share of sorrows, so when it happens, one basic rule to prevent mishaps is to pay attention to the stop sign and abide by it. Stop. Have faith.

Love
-Of the three significant feelings (Faith.Hope.Love) mentioned in 1 Cor 13:13, love is the greatest of the three.
-Ever heard this line from a song that goes "Love changes, changes everything"? Well, turns out Climie Fisher was right. It can change the outcomes in our lives if all else fails.
Love changes. Love conquers.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

So it is known that Jesus gave His life for us. To complete the so-called process we need to acknowledge and recieve it, which also falls under the third part of his message -

Acknowledgement
-To acknowledge God means to know that He's there. He may not be realised with seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling or hearing, but He's there.
-Acknowledging God can and will help us more than we don't in our daily activities. Of course, this doesn't mean God is One who can be used for purposes that will bring all benefit to you. He does what He feels is needed, so worry not and acknowledge Him.

"Failing doesn't matter. What matters is you give your best to not fail and give God the right attention He deserves" - Jonathan Choong

With that, service ended and so does this blog post. Do come next week and if you can, bring along your friends! God bless you :)

God Loves You

Hello everybody to the one, and only, fireRBANDS blog!!!! Woohoo! So here's an update of what happened last Satuday.

First, prayers and guess who was leading it?? 

Yes you guessed it Brian Bian Paul

Prayer points were:

-worship team 

-speaker

-those taking PMR trials and exams

Right after that, we had........ice breakers!!! Led by our leader Leroy Tan.

First ice-breaker was passing the rubber band around, two to be exact. If one catches up with the other, you're going to get forfeited. Suck as demonstrated in the picture below.

The second one, involves rhythm and naming foods. Without saying one that starts with the letter "S".

And with ice breakers done, it was time for worship.
Led by Faith and her team.

Then we had Sarah Khoo with the announcements of the day.

Next, the speaker for the night :)

Nicholas Choong 

God Loves You

What is Love?

-an emotion of strong attachment & emotion

-strong feeling or deep attraction to somebody

What is God's Love?

-not based on what we have or achieved

-not dependent on background, social, rank

-unconditional

Conditional Love

-you must earn the right of that person to be love by him/her

-must measure up to his/her standards

-depends on what is received form the person the love is given too

-it has a condition

Unconditional Love

-no limits and boundaries

-can't be earned

-freely given without expectations of receiving in return

What can you do with God's love

-Jesus reached to the poor

-He freed prisoners and brought healing to a broken world

-He visited the sick and clothed the naked

-He fed the poor

Right after that, Nicholas showed a video about God's love. So, here's the interesting part. Time for ya'll to do some exercise, woohoo! The video will be up on the fireBRANDS facebook page, so keep an eye out for it. Be vigilant :) 

Well that's it forr today's fireBRANDS youth update. See ya :D

Preach the Gospel! If necessary, Use words!

S'il vous plaît attendre pour moi (Please wait for me) while I take a gasp of air. 

Phew. Sorry. I just got back from school. Anyways! Welcome!

Huh? You were expecting an more grand welcome?

WELCOME TO THE FIREBRANDS BLOG! 

Well, back to the story. So Isaac led prayer last Saturday. His prayer points.

 

• Worship Team & Speaker
• Examinations 
• JYR & AYC Organizers (WOO-HOO!)
• Our Muslim friends.

Next, we had Indy Toh. Who led us into ice-breakers!!

What was it?

Well, look at this collage and you'll see!

The aim?

Basically for the people on the outside to tag the people holding the tennis ball using a pair of chopsticks

 

Next, we had Worship :)

Led by Eulene and team.

Eulene : Are you ready to shout your hearts for God??!!

Next, we had Pastor Joseph from North Zone who spoke the word of God.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^{[a] 10} so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

• The Christian life is like a race
• The Christian life is like a soldier in a war
• We make a choice 
• We fight against evil
• We defend ourselves 

• Most of us are nominal Christians. What is it?

Nominal means. One does not have a trusting & faithful relationship with God

• Paul says we have to live our lives fully for God

As Francis of Sissy said. "Preach the Gospel if necessary. Use words."

• When you are alone in  a place. God is the only person you have.  

•  People are always watching you especially on Social Networks
•  Where we go (Even if it's accidental/for a different reason)
•  What we say.
•  Is your walk with God strong?
• Yes? Good!
• No? Well, you should eat more solid food (The Word of God)

What would good knowledge make you?
- "Smarter!" Benjamin Yeoh
- "Wiser" Sarah Khoo
- "Rich" Isaac Lim
- "No poverty" Isaac Huang

God loves each one of us.
"You, and you and you and even you" Pastor Jo

God's word will lead us into good works

• It will lead us into good things
• He has designed each & everyone of us.

God allows us to go through tough times so we can be stronger. It's all about your walk with God.

What does a fool say?

A fool says that there is no God. 

Romans 6 : 1-2

^1-3So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

As human begins. We fall into tempation. But should we fall into sin?

---

whaT iS a kingdoM?

Kingdom - "A place where a King has ultimate power!" Lim Jin Ji

Who is the King in this place?

God!!

Many earthly Kings have tried to destroy the Bible for countless generations. BUT. BUT. BUT. BUT. BUT. BUT. BUT. The Bible remains, but the Kings did not.

(Tee-Hee)

Well, that concludes what happened on Saturday? Oh.. we did end with SUPPER :D Please do join us next time for it if you wanna hang out with us for some great time of fellowship!! :D

See you soon!! (Or this Saturday)

London 2012 Could Have Waited For Us

Okay, so the Olympics in London had started one day before our youth service. Impatient people :(

Still, did you know that :- 

-This Olympic Stadium is the lightest Olympics Stadium ever built?

-The one thing most people seem to talk about in the Olympics' opening ceremony amid all the grandeur is Rowan Atkinson's appearance as... Mr. Bean :) 

Anyway, here's the details of what happened last saturday, all crammed up in one page.

The sands of time, 

The two and a half hours, 

Passed on with just the action of scrolling down,

A random poem that doesn't rhyme because it seems to fit.

As usual, we had prayer to begin with, where we were broken off into groups of three, praying as one. 

Aaaandddd, that short time interval for those who had to put a stop to that incessant ring of Mother Nature's phone call.

"Waste not the time that you have in your hands, and you'll see the wonders you can achieve with it". 

*Points below*

Oooh, oooh, we had a few new comers that day too :)

Eu Jin 

Ivy

Leroy,

who was in charge of icebreakerS

Yes, icebreakerS with a capital S.

So the time came where the titans all clashed against each other in a battle that had the blood mode turned off simply because there wasn't any violence involved. Icebreakers a la Olympics. FireBrands 2012.

First up, we had a warm up game,
Based on the Olympic game. A mini quiz based on you-get-it.

And for the second icebreaker, we put the athletes to shame. See that huge track? *above*
We DUCK WALKED on it and all of us made it in under 15 seconds.

Then, a game involving toothpicks, where you use your tooth/teeth to pick up a toothpick to pick a rubber band and then passing it to the person behind you. All with a toothpick.

And last but not least, a javelin event also done with the mouth and toothpicks. Photos not taken because after all, javelins are dangerous. :P

After all that sweat and gold medals, it was time for worship as the night went on.

No amount of Olympics' events are gonna tire us from jumping to praises for God!!

And while some random athlete is making his/her country proud in London, one servant in fireBrands is making his God proud. 

Butts on the floor, ears and eyes open, and hearts ready.

Leroy, who couldn't resist a Thor joke, spoke about . . . .

Parables (Pear-apple).

What is a pear-apple?

-Earthly stories with heavenly meanings.

-Stories Jesus told.

-Stories in the Bible.

-Stories with teachings. 

Basically, a parable is a story (S-Thor-y). 

Just before he went on with his message, this *Points below* shows on the screen. Now, here's the task. Remember them in order from one all the way to 12 in 30 seconds. 

Let's move on first.

Now why did Jesus use parables in His teachings?
-Because, who doesn't love stories?
-Because who remembers facts like that without the aid of stories?
Exactly my (actually, his) point. People loved stories and besides, its easier to remember things when told in the form of stories.

He used parables simply because it is a way of teaching, and it is also relatable to modern day settings.
Take for example, the parable of the prodigal son. From the problems the world faces today, its only true that these parables are easily related with times of today.
Matthew 13:10-16 explains why Jesus used parables. ( Click Here for the verse)

Remember the parable of the sower?
-Is the soil (our heart) prepared and ready to receive what God has given for us?
-Have you ever wondered why some people seem luckier than you are? Everyone is equal in God's eyes. Maybe its time to open up your heart to the things God has given you. Then, you'll see that you too receive just as much as what the others have.

Jesus used parables in teachings also because its stories like these that gives those who oppose Him no ground.
-They were waiting for Jesus to say the wrong thing so that they can use it against Him
-Parables are stories with meanings, and stories can't be corrected. Jesus probably laughed at them for trying  in vain.
-A good story blesses hearts, young or old.

So open up your hearts, and receive the things that God blesses us with :)

*Try remembering the list of 10 words and prepare to recite it next service