Singapore Phonetics
1. LILY - adverb. Extremely, really
"Wah, you lily can sing well ah!"
2. VALLEY - adverb. extremely (same with lily)
"Look! My Versachee belt, valley nice hor?"
3. GORGES - adj. stunningly beautiful, normally found with valley
"Wah! Ah Beng's girlflan is valley gorges leh!"
4. CORAL - verb. to bicker
"Why, you not happy, ah? Want to coral, is it?"
5. REEF - (normally followed with coral) to argue ! with
"You lily want to coral reef me ah?"
6. ALTITUDE - adjective. a disagreeable demeanour
"Ah Lian lily got a bad altitude ploblem".
7. CIRRUS - adjective. certain
"You cirrus or not? Dun bruff!"
8. CANOPY - phrase. impossible
"He bought new hand phone? Canopy lah! Where got money?"
9. OLDLADY - adjective. completed
"Wah...you finish oldlady ah."
10. SUIT - verb. to project forward
"Suit! Suit! See goalkeeper come out oldlady."
11. SOW - verb. to reveal
"Sow me, sow me your new ting."
12. LOAD - noun. a path normally made up of gravel & tar
"We go Orchard Load leh."
13. BLINK - verb. deliver, send
"What you blink for me? Sow me, sow me."
Actual Headlines
1. Astronaut takes blame for gas in spacecraft.
2. Local High School dropouts cut in half.
3. Red Tape holds up new bridges.
4. Miners refuse to work after death.
5. Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers.
6. Something went wrong in jet crash, experts say.
7. Iraqi head seeks arms.
8. Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over.
9. Typhoon rips through cemetary; hundreds dead.
10. If strikes isn't settled quickly, it may last a while.
11. New study of obesity looks for larger test group.
12. Chef throws his heart into helping feed needy.
Last but not least, a sign reads -
"Tresspassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again."
The Wonders Of God
As believers in Jesus Christ, we press on into God driven by thirst, spending time in doing all the “right” things to learn more about God. We think we know what the “right” things are. We pray; we worship; we read and study His word; we delve deeper into the wisdom of the scriptures; we choose to love through the purity of His Love. Indeed we seek after God through all possible biblical means. Such is the nature of the business in this whole pursuit of knowing God. No, I am not saying that it is a misguided quest. In fact, many of you would agree it is rightly so that we press on into God for all we are worth. That is the ideal, would you not agree?
Then He says “Anyone can think they see all of me – from a distance.” With that, we are woken up from our dreams.
Getting to know God sounds like a tedious business. Movies show monks and priests poring over dusty manuscripts and ancient Apocrypha texts as a means of learning more about God. Or maybe you would consider the following to be more realistic perspectives on our lives? For many of us, time seems to slip through our fingers too easily and too quickly. Spending it with God through the reading of His Word, and reflecting on His goodness may sound rather boring to a lot of people. Quiet time with God often runs a distant second to a quiet snooze with Rip Van Winkle, especially so with those "five more minutes". Then we are caught up in a whirlwind. We are such highly sought after commodities that a whole myriad of things under the spectrum of the realities of this world vie for our attention. Then again, many of us want quality time with God, but are uneasy with the solitude, for there we face our unanswered questions, our unresolved hurts, our desires, and our unconfessed sin. To many of us, God does not seem to be the source of delightful fascination, but the reminder of our faults. Yet it is within our nature that these very needs of ours be met. God has made us so.
How then, can our needs be met? How can we view God with a sense of wonder and constant fascination? C.S Lewis asked:
Do fish complain at the sea for being wet? If they did, would the fact not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? If you are really a product of the material universe, how is it you don’t feel at home here?
The fish don’t complain, for they are in their element. The fact that we complain; that we are never satisfied; that we have unending streams of needs to be met; the fact that we are restless and thirst for more – betrays just how ill at ease we are in a material universe apart from having an intimate relationship with the God who made it. We are made in the image of a creator of all things who himself is immaterial, yet in every way very real and tangible indeed. We see the wonders of God in the rainbow, the autumnal colours of the maple trees, all life on Earth, and the oceans and the coral reefs of the world. We see His might in the creation of The Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, and the mass of stars in the heavens. We see His humour in the Platypus, and we see His glory as the Sun rises each new morning. In accordance to the infiniteness of His nature, God is wonderful beyond all this. On that concept, it is not surprising, yet life itself is full of surprises. Trust God on that.
We seek after God because we are filled with a part of Him – He breathed into us. We are also made in His image. We will remain insatiable in our thirst as long as we remain in this material world because we are meant for a life of eternity in a spiritual world with Him. Even so, when we are eventually with Him, we will still be continually drawn toward Him in worship for eternity. As we worship, God will reveal more of Himself and His glory in His perfect endless nature. For as the apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 3:10, God’s wisdom is manifold; it is so that we will realise that God is inexhaustible in His wonder. Only from a flowing stream which is inexhaustible in its supply will an insatiable thirst be quenched.
Let our prayers be that our eyes be opened to the wonders of God, and our hearts be continually singing of His praise. That our hearts remain tender to His overtures of love and not often hardened by angers big and small. That we take time to look at and not only just to see His wonders. That within us, from the restored joy of knowing Him, we will sing, listen and embrace Him without reservations.
A disclaimer for myself on the stuff I write...ha.
"Read not to contradict or believe, but to weigh and consider".
