No excuse

What, then, shall we say in response to this?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

What, then?

You and I are left with no excuse.

With such a great love as this, how now shall we live, but to live for His glory and to let His glory be made known to all the earth?

Since the UK days, Easter always gives me the impression of it being in such a mad rush. But in the midst of this whirlwind rush…. Let us remember that NO, in spite of all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. It is God’s love that holds us and motivates us and drives us to do what we do. Going back to the fundamentals of our faith. His Love.

NOT out of Christian obligation.

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (nor any other silly trivial excuses we humans come up with) will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Age Factor

Today, numbers, really do matter.

1st case

On the drive to makan after LYPG.

“So, who’s 26 and who’s 22?”

“HUH?”

“… was describing two people but I got confused who’s 26 and who’s 22.”

Yvonne and I looked at each other and paused.

…

psst I’m not even 26 yet… hmmhmm

2nd case – even worse

Home.

My mum’s auntie (I call her some complicated respectful term in chinese la) has not seen me since I was in primary school. I still remember her though. After all these years, we say our first hellos again…

in chinese

“Wah… so big already ah. Grow up so fast. Now so pretty already”

(typical long-time-no-see relative talk… I get it all the time since I’ve not seen a lot of them in awhile now. Time to re-introduce myself to all of em eh?)

“Hehe… nola nola”

(typical chinese answer)

“Wah, its been so long hor? You grow up already, I also feel so old now la…”

“Where got la, still look so young…”

Turning to my parents “Thirty plus already hoh?”

My dad: “NOLAAA, twenty five only, going to twenty six this year la”

ohmygoodness she thought I was 30+

She laughed and said, “Aiyo, don’t know why my eyes so bad ah. I also mistaken another nephew of mine to be 30+ when he’s only 27 you know”

like that makes it any better. LOL.

Thank God that I only use this age thing as a joke and don’t actually take it too seriously.

Love story

After prayer meeting, when we were in our usual mamak spot, Brandon (you must imagine Brandon in a low, dragged out sorta voice… Sorta remind me of Andrew Chong, in terms of the tone of voice not the dragginess, for those ex-Leeds ppl out there) asked me:

“Juleeee… What’s your favourite movie?”

“You guess la”

“Pride and Prejudice”

“…” (me thinking to myself… how on earth did he know that THAT is one of my fave movies [and book] of all time?)

before I could say anything, he continued,

“Umm… Becoming Jane… Notebook… *pause* Aiya… all the chick flicks la…”

Ahhhh…

I am now officially insulted.

So, modifying my reply instead of affirming his initial guess, I said,

“Why do you think I like all this films leh?”

“Because you’re a girl”

“……”

I think I now need to educate him on how not to generalise the opposite sex like that *grin*

Which didn’t really go far, since we continued on the movie train of thought for the rest of the night.

Note: Brandon’s a really sweet boy, so don’t mistake him for some chauvinistic male.

Anyway, this just gives me a reason to put this youtube video up… it is totally a rip off the Pride and Prejudice movie mannn!!!! But still, I love the song and I like the video and Taylor Swift is totally awesome She’s like the Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera of my sec school time, yet so much more cooler, cos she writes her songs AND plays the guitar…

Now, compare this with the dance sequence in P&P…

The last bit of the song (where the lyric goes “he knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring”) is also exactly from a scene inP&P… aiseh…

Anyway, for my “I’m-in-a-hopeless-romantic” or “I’m-in-love-with-love” moods, this song just cuts it.

Altogether now…

“We were both young when I first saw you/ I close my eyes and the flashback starts/ I’m standing there/ On a balcony in summer air”