For many of you who haven’t been following my blog, here is a short explanation. Andy and I were called to enter this Puisi dan Lagu (Song and Poetry) competition by our school. So we entered. Our group consists of 6 members, four of them are Malays and only Andy and I were the non-Malays.
We had our first competition on the 25th April. We won the first round and we qualified for the next round. In the next round (which has already ended) we represented the whole of Klang. So with heads bowed low and a rush of adrenaline, we went on stage on the 8th of May for the state level competition.
Before the competition, Andy and I said a simple prayer that goes something like,
“Lord Jesus, we ask You to help us in our presentation. Help Andy with his voice, help me with my guitar playing and help the rest of our group to do well. We pray that in whatever we do, we may glorify Your name. Bless us and use us. In the name of Jesus we ask and pray. Amen.”
And we went...
And other schools around Selangor went on stage and presented their Puisi dan Lagu...
About 4 hours later...
The judges announced the winner...
Our teacher came to us and told us we didn’t make it. (like what he did at the first round) And all of us were downcast… except me... Our teacher told us we only made it second place. But I didn’t believe him. So when they were about to call the second place to come and get their trophies, I told my group members to just sit down and wait because I knew that wasn’t for us. They though I was crazy and refused to accept the fact. But little did they know that...
WE WON...
Woo hoo!!!
Yay!!!
And we are now REPRESENTING SELANGOR!!!
We will be flying to Labuan, Sabah for our final competition. This time we represent Selangor and we are competing against 12 other states of Malaysia. We will be proudly carrying the Selangor flag there haha. From school representative to Klang representative and now Selangor representative.
Can somebody tell me how cool our God is?! =)
And last Monday we went to Shah Alam to be trained by professional coaches. Our group now consist of a guitarist – me, 2 vocalist – Andy and Faliq, a pembaca puisi (poetry reader) – Selina, a pianist – Idham, and a flute player – Gosh! I forgot his name… I call him Kecik haha. Because he is young and small in size and short hehe.
The coaches that trained us were professional musicians and singers in Selangor. They play for concerts and stuffs like Malaysian Idol (I think...) The vocalist was a Malay lady and her voice was wow! And she look kind of pretty too hehe, right Andy? =)
We practiced in this studio with super-branded instruments. I can’t even count the number of guitars there. But one guitar that caught my attention was the Fender Stratocaster! Ouch! The sound was superb! But still I love my Yamaha RGX 820ZBT =D
What I hated most was all of the 5 coaches were SMOKING in the studio except for the pretty lady haha. And argh! I just couldn’t wait to get out of the room because it was so POLLUTED! Gosh! If I go there more often I might even get lung cancer!
Hehe I took a picture of two of the coaches smoking after practice. See them later.
NOW HERE COMES THE JUICY PART…
Andy and I really thank God for all that has been happening to us, especially for this Puisi dan Lagu competition. For the first and second competition we did not asked God for a win or first place. All we asked was that we could glorify Him. And He answered our prayers. He even gave us two wins in a row. How awesome is that?
And that is why I am writing this post.
To glorify God.
One verse that has been given to me during the start of the first competition was Ephesians 3:20.
Ephesians 3:20
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably (exceedingly) more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us.
This verse was so so so so true to what happened for Andy and I. The verse tells us that God is able to do immeasurably more that all we could ask or imagine. You see, we did not ask God that we would win in the first competition and we did not even imagine winning! Serious! And He gave us the first place. And in the second competition, again we did not ask to have won. Although we wanted to get the first place but still we did not expect. And again, our faithful God gave us more than we could ask or imagine!
The NKJV Bible uses the word “exceedingly”. Isn’t it just so true? God is able to do exceedingly more than what we ask or imagine.
And the second part of the verse says, “according to his power that is at work in us.” God has the power to do anything He wants according to His will. And it was really true that he was at work within us during the competition. I could suddenly freak out and forget my chords and poor Andy could have suddenly lost his voice or something but none of this happened.
Be careful how you read the verse above in case you might get the wrong meaning. The verse tells u that Christ is at work in us. Therefore, God is able to do exceedingly more in us and through us. But note that this could only happen if we allow and let God work in us.
Isaiah 6:8
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I (Isaiah) said,
“Here I am. Send me!”
Isaiah allowed God to use him. Therefore, God gave Isaiah a commission to harden the calloused the hearts of the Israelites. As a result, Isaiah’s commission rendered the warnings of God’s judgment sure. In short, Isaiah’s willingness to let God use him made him one of the greatest prophets.
It all starts when we let God work in us.
Pray for Andy and I. We will be going to Labuan for the national level competition on the 25th June. Pray that we would be able to glorify God, regardless whether we win or not.
God bless all...
Send me!
Zlwin Chew.
No comments:
Post a Comment