Christmas and me!

Christmas season is here again. I tend to get a lil' sentimental during this season because it means more than just christmas gifts, carols, drama and shopping to me... It reminded me of the day that I gave my life to Jesus and how my life has been transformed ever since.


I was born again in year 1994, December 25 in a humble town of Labuan @ Anglican church. Back then, I was a youth who doesnt believe in any religion (though my mum's family was brought up in a catholic background). I believe I can be successful with my own strength. And though I wasn't a rebelious child but one that is full of great ambitions even as a non-christian back then, yet I do feel something 'missing' in my life, a huge vacuum deep inside my soul, longing to know my destiny and purpose of existence.I rejected Jesus and I've even mocked at people who wants to 'christianize' me and shared with me about Jesus. Worst still, I ridicule Jesus too.... *_* ops. (sorry Lord!)

And due to a broken family upbringing, I was suicidal when I was a kid and feeling a deep sense of rejection as a result of my lack of fatherhood and honorable authority at home. many of you may have heard of my story. If it wasn't because of God's grace, I won't even be here today, I could have been dead in my mother's womb. *gulp*

Well, I guess I've caught God's attention... He led me to Himself through a season of self actualization to find Him.

To cut the long story short (share with you my conversation story another time, long story)... I was in the band as a guitarist for the Youth christmas party (yeah.. i wasn't even really 'saved' yet but was given the opportunity to serve... now that I think about it, it must be His grace...) That night, I heard the good news that Jesus came to die for my sins and to give me a purpose to live. Wow! Very simple message, yet to me... it meant the whole world. It was exactly what I've been yearning for and searching for... Jesus is the answer.

I responded to the 'altar call' and prayed the salvation prayers... I wept for hours. Not knowing why, I couldn't explain that experience... but I must say, it was the best experience I've ever had. It was as if God took my heart out to cleansed, purged and removed all the filth on it. Healing took place. That was a true conversation experience that brings everlasting results - the new birth experience.

I woke up the next morning, full of life! Sunshine! Hope filled my heart and a new passion for living. A new vision for serving. My life was never the same again.

Knowing Jesus is the best event that ever took place in my life. Accepting Jesus is the best decision I've ever made in my life. Walking with Him is the best experience I ever had in my journey of life.
Thank you Jesus, without you I could have been destroyed, without you I wont be here today. Christmas is special because of You. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to me. 15 years of God's amazing grace upon my life. The best is yet to come! :)

D-Tails. The big D in life!

If a student, don't pay attention to the details of their coursework and lessons, they will fail.

If an employee, don't pay attention to the details of their assigned tasks, they will be scolded and fired.

If a secretary, don't pay attention to the details of the administration, miscommunication happens that leads to chaos.

If a boss, don't pay attention to the details of his or her own instructions and commands, his or her subordinates will suffer and eventually lose their respect on him or her.

If a follower or member, don't pay attention to the details of the advices and guidance of his or her, he or she will never grow into fulfilling their destiny.

If a leader, don't pay attention to the details of his or her member's life, he or she will eventually lose the influence over them.

Learn to love details. Ask for an 'eye of details'.
Trust me. You can avoid many unnecessary heartaches and battles.

Let Them Go!

There are people who CAN walk away from you.

And hear me when I tell you this. When people can walk away from you: let them walk... don't try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you. I mean hang up the phone.

When people can walk away from you let them walk.
Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left.

The bible said that, they came out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not for us. For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us. [1 John 2:19]

People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay.

Let them go.

And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person it just means that their part in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead.. You've got to know when it's dead.

You've got to know when it's over. Let me tell you something.. I've got the gift of good-bye.. It's the tenth spiritual gift, I believe in good-bye.. It's not that I'm hateful, it's that I'm faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have! He'll give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don't need it. Stop begging people to stay.

Let them go!
-By Bishop T.D Jakes

To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

There comes a point in your life when you realize:

Who matters, Who never did, Who won't anymore...
And who always will.
So, don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.

How's Your Self Image

I was talking to one of my member today about self image and how it can affects our pursuit of God's calling in our lives. I've learned that in life, there will be seasons where you will have to face the LSe issue, there will always be times that some people will not like you or love you regardless of what you have done. When you did well, they don't like you, even when you have done nothing wrong, they don't like you too.

They just don't like you and will never like you. Then to me, as long as you love God and your conscience is clear that you are walking righteously before God and men, and is confident of your identity in Christ, it doesn't really matter anymore whether others love you or not, you can live in freedom and fly with your dreams. Well, if they love you, it will be a bonus. If they dont, let them go. What's the point of keeping people like that in your life that doesn't value you. It's not a loss to let them go.

So I guess the best way is to just move on and focus on those who value you and appreciate you, that will you will rise into your potential and stop beating yourself up for not being good enough to be liked by everyone.

Here's what I've learned recently:

All of us have three images: projected image, perceived image, and actual image. Your projected image is the way you desire others to see you. Your perceived image is how others see you. Your actual image is who you really are.

For so many, their perceived image is what matters most. Their reputation is of greater importance to them than the true motives of their hearts. This causes them to project themselves in the way they desire to be perceived. Their efforts are focused on appearances, status, titles, saving face and so forth.

Consider Jesus—He was rejected by many, slandered by the influential, lied about by the rulers, and viewed by the establishment as a heretic or even demon inspired. His perceived image was not favorable in the eyes of many, especially the notables. Yet His actual image was quite different, for Scripture states that He is the express image of the Father (see Hebrews 1:3).

Jesus was a person of integrity—He was the same with the people He met as He was with His Father. He did not boost His reputation and did not seek the accolades and approval of men. He only cared for what was important to His Father. That is our Father's goal for us, and it should be our goal as well.

"We must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:10, AMP). We must remember that our projected or perceived image is not what will be revealed before the entire assembly of heaven. Rather it will be our actual image, our true heart motives and intentions.

Paul continues: "It is because we know this solemn fear of the Lord that we work so hard."

(2 Corinthians 5:11, NLT). The fear of the Lord keeps us in touch with our actual image. The opposite is true as well: The more we lack the fear of the Lord, the more we lean upon our projected image.

You will serve who you fear. If you fear God, you'll obey God. If you fear man, you'll ultimately obey man's desires. For this reason, Proverbs tells us it is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you. (Proverbs 29:25).

Well, I've learned it a hard way to discover my true self image in Christ and learned to value how God sees me more than how others view me. I'm happy! :)

Songwriting Journey - Unbelievable

Finally our church's first EP (Extended Play) "UNBELIEVABLE" is out last weekend, launched during our Emerge Conference. Everyone went home humming the tunes of "Rising" and slept with 'launch me like a cannonball' lines in their heads. Yeah, can't get rid of it!

CHUP! I know you wanna screamed "Hey! you guys made a spelling error for the cover, the cd and t-shirt". "UENBEILAVBLE"???.

@_@ Gotcha! See, that's the whole point! It caught your attention right? :) It's not an error, it's an artistic way to capture your attention to pick up the CD! It was intended that way, it's definitely not a typo error. clear you doubts! :)

The EP consists of 7 songs:

2 English praise (Rising & A Story)
2 English worship (Broken for you & Unbelievable)
1 devotional (Lord's prayer)
1 Chinese pop love song (You taught me to love)
1 Indonesian worship (Unbelievable-Indo)
and a hidden track with African choir at the end.

Yes, it's kinda 'rojak' I know. Well, it caters for all! :) Now every member in church will feel the sense of belonging. The bananas, the 'cina'-man, the africans, the indonesians etc... it's a big family you know.

It was a miracle to get the EP out by Emerge though. It was super rush! Ask the boys that did the recording, the schedule is super tight.

Kysern Lim's "RISING"was so catchy and now everyone talks about the cannonball!

Debbie Teong's "BROKEN FOR YOU"sang by Wendy Foo was beautifully arranged with Kysern's amazing classical playing.

THE LORD'S PRAYERis a wonderful song to do your quiet time and ponder upon Him.

As for my involvement, I was mainly involved for the chinese song (You Taught Me to Love -教我去爱）and the lyrics for 2 of the other english songs: Unbelievable & A Story.

Well, as I know that the band is trying to write songs for the album, up the the final moment before recording, it wasnt fruitful yet. I was very concern as I know the pressure is heating up too as the deadline is closer and closer. Anyway, I've been praying for a breakthrough that we will have inspirations and more importantly, a Word of season to write new songs, not just jamming away and write anything just to produce something.

I woke up one Monday morning and after spending some time praying, many ideas and inspirations flooded into my spirit. I wrote them down immediately, and worship God with each words I wrote.

I wrote 4 songs that morning, 2 songs with music done, the others were just the lyrics.

One of the song that I really love, is the song named SPEECHLESS. In which now big portion of the lyrics has become the song "UNBELIEVABLE". I love the bridge, it was a devotion echoed to God that morning about His amazing grace towards us. Anyway, Abel thought about using the word 'unbelievable' because there was a season in church that Ps Kevin always says:"Unbelievable!" and the church responded "Believe it!"

So yeah! Kinda 'flow' with the church current culture. Anyway, so when they told me that they needed verses and lyrics for that song title as they only have the chorus lines, I've passed that lyrics over and they continued to work on the music. And with the help of skillful and creative musicians, the music is now done, it's amazing! Love it.

Next song is the song "A STORY". Well, this song was written because that morning, I recalled a sharing by Ps Kevin in leaders meeting one night, where he shared that our church must tell a story. Every church has a story. Everyone has a story. What is the story of our church? What is the heartbeat of every member? So then, I penned down the lyrics for this song with the desire that everyone would sing and echoed the vision of the church. That our church is one that LOVES & GIVES TO THE LOST & THOSE IN NEED. Thanks to Kysern that put it wonderful music (you rock' bro!) and Abel added a few lines too to make the song more crunchy! :) They did a great job!

Another song that I've worked on with more effort, from composing to recording, is that only pop chinese song in the EP. It's giving a totally different 'feel' in the EP as it's not a worshipful song but a pop song. The song "教我去爱“ You taught me to love.

My first attempt to write a chinese duet song. Tried it for english songs but first chinese duet song. It was a great experience. Where did I get the inspiration for this song? My bathroom! Yes, I was showering and praying and pondering upon writing a love song, at the same time was thinking about love and forgiveness. That's when the lyrics came into my mind, He has taught me to love. Well, it was also meant for commercial publishing because the song did not mention anything about God or Jesus, it has double meaning. If you can 'get it' of course. *winks*

It was also meant for a person who has lost confidence to love due to previous broken relationship to rediscover and relearn how to love when he/she met the new lover. Well, music is fun. song has a soul.

I totally enjoyed the songwriting experience. As for the music arrangement, it could have been done better if given more time. I didn't have much time to plan out the intro and interlude, I felt it can be done better. Ahh, rushing it... and learned a lesson from that too. Anyway thanks to Xiao Kang Studio. The recording is nice. It's a good scrutiny anyway.

Thanks to Chronicles and Aiko for their amazing voices that make the song so soothing and beautiful.

I always believe that writing songs for congregational worship is not just about a nice song, but a song that the people can echo back to God the heartbeat and prayers of a church, that is very much flowing with the direction of the church at the season, or it can be a song that speaks of the word of season given to the church through pastor's message. Thus I always remind myself to write songs that flow with pastor's sermons.

Thanks to KC Gan the creative director of CHC Singapore who wrote amazing songs in their albums, has always been my guide and inspiration in songwriting. He gave me many good advices throughout the journey. He just told me that he is now writing new songs for next album already! so fast... anyway, I'm starting another round too to prepare for next church album, better start early so we'll have more time to work on it. Praying for prophetic inspirations. *winks*

Well, I still have many chinese pop songs yet to be recorded properly for demo, but I've met up with a wonderful songwriter and friend last week, Will Tan VC who offered to help me publish and push out the songs in Taiwan through his newly established recording label 'Rainbow Heaven' 彩虹天堂。That's a great open door yo... thanks bro!

I've so much to learn and explore in terms of music and songwriting. It's a tough journey! As S.H.E sang it in their famous song "听袁惟仁弹吉他", "写歌其实不容易卖歌又要靠运气靠关系" (Songwriting is not easy, selling song also depends if you're 'lucky' to have 'wide-networking') . "音乐这条路很辛苦,很寂寞“ (The journey of music-exploring is not easy and often lonely).

That's so true hey. When you wrote a nice song that is easy to sing "朗朗上口," people may comment that it sounds like another familiar song (they are trying to say you are copying). If you wrote a song too hard to sing, people may says that it is hard to remember and follow thus it's a lousy song. If your lyrics are too simple, they says you have no substance, if your lyrics too 'chim', they says you are writing nonsense and it's not practical at all.

The truth is that music is universal. Creativity is unlimited. You may come up with a melody that someone from another corner of the world has also making the same sound and melody. Coincidences happen all the time. Songwriters, agree? ;)

The debate never ends. There will always be critics for all the things you do in life, be it music, or dance, or design or whatever that you use your creativity at. That's why I admire those successful song composers whom i believe, have been through a lot and survived all the critics to be where they are today.

I've learned to take advice from people who genuinely believes in helping me to succeed, taking in the constructive comments to improve and I've also learn to reject comments that only meant to tear down confidence and destroy passion from those who has no intention to help fulfiling my destiny. I hope you this will encourage you guys out there who is trying to achieve your dreams, whatever you aspire to do in life, JUST DO IT! LIVE YOUR DREAM.

Well well.. I just gotta remind myself to keep doing what I'm passionate about, whether it brings rewarding results or not at the end, as least I've tried and I live with no regrets. Too many people have lived with setbacks, discouragement and thus ignoring their deepest voices and passion that makes the 'real' them.

Like it or not, we only have ONE life to live. Live it to the fullest! @_@

Ah, I want to thank my hubby and family members who are always supportive of my pursuit of music as well as other dreams in life such as... minister to the rejects. And to some of my closest friends who always believed in me. With your support, it's more than enough to keep me going! :)

One Life. Live It.
SHIR~

My Beautiful Home - DASH RESIDENCE

DASH DWELLING PLACE @ SS12 Subang Jaya.


I loveeee my home! From deciding the colors, selecting materials, renovations and thinking of the concepts for each corner of the house... every bit has been exciting and rewarding. I truly enjoy the process of the whole ID (Interior Design). Finally... here's a glimpse of our beautiful home:

The Dining Hall

The dining hall mural - complimentary of WeiTieng&Mon

The Kitchen

Living Room
(Yes! They are playing Wii!)

The Living room (other side)

Our small little STUDY ROOM & LIBRARY
(Still got boxes of books not displayed, not enough space!! *_*)

This house has gone through a major 'transformation' and makeover compared to its original 'look'... Orange walls with green and pink *_*

Anyway, we are blessed to have a beautiful home. David and I love to host guests and we want to have a place that others can come to have fellowship and enjoy!

Catching up with blogging!

Yeah, I know I've been very slack in blogging lately....

Having to swap from Multiply.com blogs to Blogspot.com now, many blogs still yet to be migrated over.

I've got so many blogs waiting at DRAFT box to be published! Events and such... exciting yet busy season. No time to sit down and blog lately!

Will backdate all the blogs soon! Stay tuned!