Posts by Andrew Pubalasingam

14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. 15 Some of Saul’s servants said to him, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you. 16 Let us find a good musician to play the harp whenever the tormenting spirit troubles you. He will play soothing music, and you will soon be well again.” 17 “All right,” Saul said. “Find me someone who plays well,…

Rodney’s message on Sunday reminded me of a common dilemma I face with trying to be obedient to God. It is when God asks us to do something, but our experience tells us that it is not a good idea or perhaps that we may have heard wrong.  Fundamentally, I believe you weren’t designed to live by experience alone, but by every word that comes from God.  When it comes to what God is asking you to do, I don’t…

According to my friend google: Buried is defined as being placed or hidden underground, covered up or repressed. Planted is defined as being placed in the ground so it can grow, place or fix in a specified position. In this season of patient endurance, I found myself feeling like I’m being buried, placed under the many burdens and expectations of life while having piles of unexpected problems and circumstances thrown into the mix, to make for one heavy load.  Being…

I heard a story about Kobe Bryant and how the majority of his training routines revolved around drilling down the basics. An interviewer asked him why the best basketball player in the league (at the time) was practicing the basics? He responded with a cheeky “That’s why I’m the best player.” As I gleaned at this inspiring story of mastery, I was convicted by the Holy Spirit to have a similar mindset. As Christians, we often get caught up in…

In one of my classes, my professor shared a story about his experience with healing and deliverance ministry. He had worked with gang members and addiction in Asia, and his first encounter with demonic possession was with a gang member who was in rehab for heroin. The patient had more withdrawal symptoms than usual, and when the team started praying for him, he began to throw himself against the concrete wall. They had to restrain him, but they couldn’t seem…

As I was preparing the winter care-packages and trying to figure out what to include this year, I felt the Lord put this verse on my heart. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. – 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (NIV) As I kept repeating verse 6 to myself I felt like God wanted…

I really enjoyed Joe’s message on Sunday. He speaks with such integrity and you can tell what he’s saying comes out of a genuine love for God and a genuine care for others. The part of Joe’s message that stuck out to me was the understanding of what it means to be a child of God and the different stages.  As a systematic thinker, It was helpful for me to see what each stage involved and how it compared to…

At this stage in my life, one of the things I’ve been thinking about more and more is how I can give back to my parents. I thought to myself that if my parents ever stopped helping me and doing things that a parent would do for their children, I would be content. It’s not because I’m superman or super independent and invincible. It’s because everything that they have done for me since I was born until now has been…

One of the things that stood out to me from Donna’s message was an encouragement to be curious in our faith. In one of my counseling courses called Skills Labs, we were taught the idea of being “compassionately curious.” Whenever we got stuck in a mock therapy session, we were reminded to be compassionately curious. For most novice therapists or therapists in training like myself, we tend to gravitate towards identifying the problem and come up with possible solutions when…

On Sunday, Adib delivered a message on the scriptures in Matthew 20:20-34. He highlighted and contrasted the request from the mother of Zebedee’s sons and a request from two blind men. Jesus responded to them differently after asking them both the same questions of “what is it you want?” and “what do you want me to do for you?” The request from the mother of Zebedee’s sons was to “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit…

We just had our 2nd WF(Wildfire) retreat this past August. If I were to describe the WF retreat to you, I would say it was like a mini family gathering. It was very similar to the Family Weekend, except that we had to cook our own food, clean up after ourselves, and we didn’t have to walk or drive to our accommodations after each session. We worshiped together, we learned together, we ate together, we prayed together and we played…

In this season of Patience Endurance, I’ve noticed that when things get difficult and situations and circumstances challenge my faith, I tend to use more “buts” in my prayers/conversations with the Lord. For example, “Lord you said this, but this happened.” “I hear what you’re saying, but if you would just make a way then.”  Etc. I felt the Lord respond to me with an “and” after every concern I gave Him. After every worry and reason for doubt, I…