20160913- The Amazing "A's of Albany

[Natural Bridge @ The Gap, Albany, 15/9/2016]

"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through.  Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then we return home" - Australia Aboriginal Belief

Scoot Off!
Yes, a team of 8 did just that on 13/9/2016 to Perth and then headed to Albany, which was about 4.5 hours drive down south.  The whole trip cost about S$1k as we bunked in for 3 free nites in Perth with sleeping bags in the living room for some!

Awe-Inspiring Trip in Albany!

• Amazing Flowers in Spring as we found out that the temperature was much lower than usual years!
• Admirable yellow Canolas and pink white everlasting flowers!
• Astounding Winds at one of the 2 wind farms which served 80% of the 35,000 population in Albany!
• August waves in the coastal beach! Crystal clear pools!
• Astonishing Big Trees at the Tree Top Walk!
• Adventurous climb to Castle Rock - a feat for the over 50s to 70s!
• Awesome looking Alpacas - the guard llama for the sheep!
• Alfresco lunch overlooking the vast vineyard!
• Astronomical Nite at University of WA off campus site at Pingelly! (Where for the first time,  we saw Saturn with the ring, enlarged moon and also the beautiful Alpha Centauri - a pair of twinking diamond like stars) with just the telescope!

That perhaps summed up my thoughts for this amazing "A"s of Albany.

"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through.  Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then we return home" - Australia Aboriginal Belief

Above was a quote taken at the Windfarm.  Perhaps it is quite true in our spiritual walk here on earth.  LOVE -We love because He first loved us.  We are from dust and dust shall we return when we expire in 70s, 80s or 90s according to His call. Indeed it is not about me, not you nor us.  It is all about Him.  GOD is LOVE.  In this pilgrim process, life isn't about finding yourself.  It's about discovering who GOD created you to be. Amen.

Interesting quote indeed.  The 7-day trip ended as soon as it seem started.
It left me footprints of what I gazed back in the various places we visited.  From the mountains to the seas and the forest .  

Albany is an awesome place to be reminded of YHWH, the creative Creator God. His creative wonders which made man minute when one stood at the cliffs observing the pounding waves or hugged a big Grandma Tingle tree which is past already 400 years old! The fabulous waves that foamed in white & how the trees clapped their hands as written in the Bible -made me appreciate what the psalmist used to describe in the psalms.  Being up close and personal to a Wind Farm which produces clean energy! And the brevity of the numerous permutation of colourful spring flowers that last only for less than a month except for the everlasting ones. And being able to climb a rock (something that I hate doing in vertical sports) to embrace the panaroma view of Albany from on high.  And last but not least - being able to see Saturn with our naked eyes! Yes, the ring around this planet was so clear!

And a chance to pet that cute looking Alpacas!

So here's the video to sum it up! What an awesome God we serve!

20160912-My Airplant that blooms - This is the Air I breathe!

Ps150: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!"

The Beauty of Airplants!

There are more than 650 types of air plants (Tillandsia spp.) that can grow and thrive -- without soil.  After more than a year hanging at our balcony barren - FINALLY -  this particular one bloomed radiantly! Wow!

It started with red tips on the leaves..and lo and behold about 7 days later - pretty red little flowers just appeared. So cute.

Fundamental Need : Air!!! Life!

Perhaps like  Gen 2:7 where the LORD BREATHED into the nostrils  the breath of life, and the man became a living thing.  So does this airplant that survived mainly on air !

Likewise in Eze 37:5 the Sovereign LORD made the BREATH enter the dry bones and woosh! They came to life!

Finally in John 20:21 After His resurrection when He appeared to His disciples. What did Jesus do? After He said " As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" V22 He BREATHED on them and said "Receive the Holy Spirit"

How long can one hold his breath on average?

Having equated air with life, now we can understand why most of us on average can only hold our breath for 20-30 secs at most .  And if relaxed manner holding the breath underwater - perhaps 2 min. But In 2012, German freediver Tom Sietas held his breath underwater for 22 minutes and 22 seconds, besting Dane Stig Severinsen’s previous Guinness record by 22 seconds. 

The day we breathe our last gasp of air is the day we expire.

So what do we do with our breath on earth?

Guess by now we understand what Paul wrote in Acts 17:24-25

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all man LIFE & BREATH and everything else"

V28 For in him we live and move and have our being.

Do not take our breath for granted.

The air we now breath is free.  Thank God we need not pay any air tax.  Pretty great air we have in little red dot though once in a while contaminated with the haze from our neighbour!

But this new born spirit eternal life to those who received Him as the Son of God , crucified on the cross for us , cost Jesus His life.  Not so free after all .

And as said, what does our Lord Jesus Christ really need from us? He owns every part of this earth and every part of our being.  He designates the time we expire.

THE FINALE PSALM 150 sums it all up. If you do have breath right now and reading this little blog on airplants....

PRAISE THE LORD! Anywhere. Anytime. With musical instruments if you can play. Dance.

LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD.  PRAISE THE LORD.

20160906:Rom11:36 Input / Output : lOve+lIve

Rom 11:36 "For FROM him & THROUGH him and TO him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen"

Max Lucado "We exist to exhibit God, to display His glory. We serve as canvases for His brush strokes, papers for His pen, soil for His seeds and glimpses of His image ... He uncommons the common by turning kitchen sinks into shrines, cafes into convents, and nine-to-five workdays into spiritual adventures... When you magnify your Maker with your strengths ... your days grow suddenly sweet." Your work is important to God. Whatever your work is, it should represent Him. Manage them well. Even the breath we breathe and the blood that courses through our veins are God's investment to us - He expects a return. So, use them to promote His Kingdom."

Someone sent the above quote to me few days ago.

I pondered.  I wondered. How true is the text of Max above.

And then I took a photo of my red mouse over this mouse pad whose words are "wonders'as in Daniel 4:3 "How great are His signs , how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation"

Rom 11:36 "For FROM him & THROUGH him and TO him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen"

I used to liken our Creator God to be like a super computer - with mighty computer processors. The Input and Output devices that we now use to communicate with our PCs.  My mouse or keyboard is an input device for my laptop, while my monitor and printers are my output devices.

On the other hand, I often wonder & marvel at the state of the recent technology where we can send photos via our phone using the software like WhatApps to another party in another part of the world in second! How the picture is being send and received often awes me.  The Inputs of the signals and data received by the system and the Outputs transferred.

I am bad at computer programming. In my time, we learn BASIC.  If you were my age learning this in the 1980s, you would probably know my age. LOL.  Those IF...THEN...ELSE...GOTO...and I remembered my program always never seemed to work.  Just failed in that logic thing!

Fast forward to 2016, we now have WIRELESS network.  We use less of the keyboard.  We use Voice instead of the tapping in or scribbling.  And today, a foreign language can be immediately translated to another language of the other person's choice! The chicken and the duck can now 'talk' to each other:(

Reflections

If God our Father is indeed the CPU of our lives, whom He sent His Son here to earth for us (such as said, no one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ His Son), and then only to give us His Holy Spirit (the unseen Helper) in this new wireless world of connection where we can tap unto Him --anyway, everywhere, anyhow , anytime without the need of any I/O device , how then should we live our life?

Apart from Him we cannot do anything. How true if the the brain of the CPU stops processing on our behalf once we disconnect with Him.  

Today, we are seeing multitudes of people with zombie like disease - heads bent, fingers hooked.  Walking in this posture on the roads.  In eating places or evening restaurants - people are so unaware of their next person presence in the seat too.  Each minding their own virtual chat , overlooking the physical presence of the humans in the surrounding.  We definitely need to DISCONNECT  to CONNECT.  So likewise, such so called good devices may need to be put away so that our QT with Him will not be hindered as well.

INPUT/OUTPUT ?

Why did Jesus cry out in John 7:38" He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters."

Max quote above - is yet another affirmation of our INPUT and OUTPUT of this life of having Jesus in our lives.  Jesus' ways are often not the world's ways.  In fact it is often a reversal.  

We love because He first Love us.  That is the input of love we receive from Him.

And In Him we live and have our being.  That is the output of how we should live.  

In Love we Input and In Output we Live to magnify Him.

"For FROM him & THROUGH him and TO him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen"

Stay Connected to the CPU!