One blue evening

Such a pretty blue evening sky. And the lovely light glowing from the corner.

ranting on wages

(I think about this once in a while but I make sure to not let myself be consumed by this matter. I hope from reading this you get a clue on whatever it is you want to get a clue on!)

(source)

I'd like to own a piece of property someday. A car would be nice, but it's not a solid investment.

I'd like to have a house. And I'd plan to fill and decorate it with things and stuff that'll help the people around me make their own space and experiences in it. Ooh!

But with the property prices rising, and at a very disproportionate rate to my wages, I see it very highly unlikely I'd be able to get the house (or even apartment!) of my dreams in my lifetime. Realistically speaking - it would take forever to pay for the house! Even the stamping fee etc (the miscellaneous expenses you'd have to pay if you want to purchase a property) would cost close to a year's salary. Yes, people. You have to pay to before you can buy a house.

(But what about bank loans? They're depressing because that's just another bill to pay every month and just about the only realistic way you can own a house)

And that's not all, either. I don't plan to move out anytime soon because I've actually calculated how much it would cost to live sustainably in the city (minus treats and extravagance) and it's so mind-boggling - I'd have almost no savings - I don't even want to open that book anymore.

Going further into this how-much-you-earn matter, I have determined that it would be impossible for me to get married to someone earning the same as me. To top it off, if we were to own two cars, one house and was expecting a child, and to avoid living on credit, we'd have to earn a combined salary that's so astronomical I don't even want to put it down on this blog! (And that's assuming that I would be working while expecting! If I did not work, put that figure to his monthly wages)

This is serious stuff, kids. Financial matters is not a laughing matter. (Haha, wordplay!)


God, give us wisdom and discernment and self-control!

"do you clean yourself before you take a bath?"

(Source)

Daily Readings from 100 Days Of Favor by Joseph Prince:

My Friend, you are favored and accepted by God today because of HIS unmerited favor (grace). Even if your life is in a mess, he can take your mess and make it into something beautiful. Come to Him just as you are.

Years ago, one of my church members suddenly stopped coming to church for a long time. I met up with him to find out how he was doing and to see if everything was alright. He was very honest  with me and told me that he was going through a lot of problems in his marriage, and that he was now addicted to alcohol. Then, he said this: “Let me get my life right, then I will come back to church.”

I smiled and asked him, “Do you clean yourself before you take a bath?” I could tell from his expression that he was taken aback by my question, so I told him, “Come as you are to the Lord. He is the bath. He will cleanse you. He will get your life in order for you, and He will cause every addiction to lose its hold on you. You don’t have to use your own efforts to clean yourself before you take a bath!”

I am glad to share that this precious brother soon returned to church and Jesus turned his life around. Today, he is happily married, blessed with a beautiful family and is one of my trusted, key leaders. This is what the Lord does when you come to Him as you are, and allow Him to love you into wholeness. He will make all things beautiful in your life.

There are many people today who are like this brother. They want to get their lives together by themselves before they come to Jesus. They are under the impression that they need to make themselves holy before they can step into God’s holy presence. They feel like they are being hypocrites if they don’t sort out their lives first before coming to church.

Nothing could be further from the truth. You will never be able to make yourself holy enough to qualify for God’s blessings. You are made holy, righteous and clean by the BLOOD of Jesus Christ, and it is HIS righteous standing that qualifies you - nothing more and nothing less. So stop trying to clean yourself before you go to the Lord. Come to Jesus with all your mess, all your addictions, all your weaknesses and all your failures. God loves you just as you are. However, He also loves you too much to let you stay the same. My friend, when you come to Jesus, He becomes your “bath”. He will wash you clean, whiter than snow! Jump into the bath today and allow Jesus to make you perfect, righteous and holy in God’s eyes!

TODAY’S PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, Your grace saves the worst of us. No matter how messed up my life is, You can turn it around and make it beautiful. I come to you just as I am today, with all my faults and failings. I thank you that you have made me righteous with Your blood and that you are washing me with the water of your word and loving me into wholeness once more. Your unmerited favor in my life will remove every addiction and sickness, turn my mourning into rejoicing and fill my heart with your robust peace!

TODAY’S THOUGHTS:
No one cleans himself before taking a bath. So, I’ll come to Jesus - the bath - just as I am.

you won't relent

Song of Songs 8:6-7 "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealously unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, rivers cannot wash it away."

Deuteronomy 4:24 " For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." 

gotta go to glastonbury

With the Olympics around, I've read at least three or four different articles talking about the drug-like benefits of music. How some athletes pump themselves up with a certain type of music during practice, before a match and all that.

Music is a substance. It's a drug, minus the negative side effects. (Which kinda explains why some people listen to a song endlessly after a break up. It helps!)

This week I wanted to buy Urbanscapes 2012 tickets, but found out the early bird ones have been sold out, so I deferred purchase till a reasonable time. (Sigur Ros for USD50, are you kidding me??)

Speaking of music fests, I always like the line-up at Glastonbury. I'll probably never make an effort to attend, unless someone pays me to go there or sends me there on assignment, so Youtube will have to do.

dance

"Ted Shawn once said that, “dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made" and just now am I really starting to embrace that. the fact that all of this is a gift from God, and the fact that my very substance, my body and my very physical being of who I am is my instrument in my craft."

inspiring

"I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future."

"How was your week?"

This is what my screen looks like.

I like the colors. It's pretty. And the burst of stars and all that gas. 

This week has been a roller coaster week. 

(I had to mention that, lest you think I am all sunshine all the way, judging from the appearance I upkeep on social networks) 

"What verse spoke to you?"

"Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God 

than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

Ps 84:10

"What has God been trying to teach you?"

Sometimes I feel it hard to know how much I really need God until I have my comfort taken away from me. It's in the moment of semi-despair (and I say semi because my problems really aren't all that serious compared to, say, having the ground shrink under your feet) that I read the Psalms and comfort overwhelms my soul. 

So beautiful, so strange and yet so real! 

If you're reading this, answer the three questions 

(How was your week?; What verse spoke to you?; and What has God been trying to teach you?) 

in your Facebook notes/blog and tag me in it. I'd like to know :)

The weather right now

So good!

Me: The song is My Valentine by Paul McCartney, man!

D: Oh, I'm more of a John Lennon kinda guy. HAHAHA just kidding!

*both laugh*

D: Ringo all the way, yo.

blogging is dead

blogging is a dying art. a lot of people may disagree and a lot will agree but this is what i think. blogging is a dying art.

nobody wants to sit down and READ about your day. they want to scroll through images and SEE your day. it's a visually-driven world. attention span is getting shorter and we all want things, and we want things NOW. (instagram > blogger. sorry google, you made the wrong purchase)

likewise - nobody wants to sit down and think about what to write. they want to take a picture (cos it'll last longer) and let it speak a thousand words.

i am sad that nobody wants to write (cos then i have nowhere else to stalk). sure, you can consume all the information you want, but when will you yourself produce valuable, meaningful content for consumption?

I take back my words from my previous post. The vibration mode is not functioning.

my iphone repair service experience - a rare tale of good service

so something happened to my phone yesterday night and i was at an absolute loss. i admit i am addicted to tech (and it's really bad i know but i like it and i bet you do too so there) - and more than that, i actually use it to create and compound my life - you could say it almost controlled my life! so you see its significance and can feel my pain when i say it went blue screen on me yesterday night.

man i was so sad. but i had to deal with it cos it happened already mah. not like can die wan, right? haiyo drama so much for what. can fix wan.

after publicizing my predicament on facebook, a friend told me i could get it fixed at a shop in centro klang, so off i went this afternoon. i spent two hours there while two guys attached three different new LCD screens to it. while there, they also changed the front camera, had a problem with the back, tried it out with two other cameras and got it fixed. for those of you who are curious on the cost of saving outdated technology, the total came up to RM455.

what i liked was the people at the repair centre. they were friendly and spoke good english and were amused when i introduced myself (note to self: introducing self as aisha gets discounts, haha!). also the boss showed me a box of cracked iphone screens they repaired. so interesting. definitely one place i'll be going back to, should the phone decide to kill itself again, simply because of the great service.