Riding With The King
Blues is always my favourite type of music. It makes me relax after listening to some intense rock like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci or Dream Theatre. This particular one is my favourite. Enjoy!
The title is “Riding With The King” by B.B. King and Eric Clapton. Two awesome blues legends produced this piece of ultimate awesomeness.
Eric Clapton & B.B. King- Riding With The King
I dreamed I had a good job and I got well paid. I blew it all at the penny arcade. A hundred dollars on a kewpie doll. No pretty chick is gonna make me crawl. Get on a TWA to the promised land. Every woman, child and man Gets a Cadillac and a great big diamond ring. Don't you know you're riding with the king? He's on a mission of mercy to the new frontier, He's gonna check us all on out of here. Up to that mansion on a hill Where you can get your prescription filled. Get on a TWA to the promised land. Everybody clap your hands. And don't you just love the way that he sings? Don't you know we're riding with the king? Riding with the king. Don't you know we're riding with the king? A tuxedo and shiny 335. You can see it in his face, the blue never lie. Tonight everybody's getting their angel wings. And don't you know we're riding with the king? I stepped out of Mississippi when I was ten years old With a suit cut sharp as a razor and a heart made of gold. I had a guitar hanging just about waist high And I'm gonna play this thing until the day I die. Don't you know we're riding with the king? Don't you know we're riding with the king? Riding, you're riding with the king. You're riding, you're riding with the king.
Zack Kim
Last time he used to be a nobody. But now, thanks to YouTube, he is kind of like a superstar with his ability to play 2 guitars at the same time.
I was looking through my old pictures and found out that I actually have a picture with him.
This is one of his great works:
The Whole New Realization
Life is more than making money. Period.
Before this I was so enthusiastic about getting a job here during summer, earn a lot of money and wanted to have an easier life next year. That was my way too early 2009 new year resolution made in 2008. No doubt all students have issues with money. Guess if it isn’t managed well, it will continue to be an issue even if I became the CEO of Santos that earns like 2 million freaking dollars a year. But it is just hard to just survive the pathetic amount of money Petronas gives us as allowance. Say I’m ungrateful and all the crap (I wonder why I get this a lot from fellow Petronas scholars). Face the fact, the amount is barely enough. Living tight is the only way to deal with this tight budget. If you can make it through monthly with this amount, good on you, God bless you. But not for me. So why bother flaring me with all the ungrateful bull-crap?
Anyway, don’t want to get too personal here. I’ve got a job throughout summer in Santos. They pay me well, treat me well, I’m not in lack. But I still feel there is something missing. Friends, I have them here. Andrew, Ruey, Yun, Delia, David and a lot more guys have been giving me support. Thanks guys! I have the things I want here. But then I start to think to myself, now what? Finally I’ve come to a realization, that what I am truely missing is life. I want to go home and spend time with my family. I want to stay at home and feel the comfort of home. I want to sometimes travel to JB and look for my dear. I want to hang out with my bunch of friends, like Bernard, Phillip, Clement, Abelene, Naomi, Phoebe, Chew Ming and so many more. There is more to life than just wanting to earn and save a lot of money so that life would be easier next year. It is more than being able to not worry about money. Money is not everything.
Perhaps I got the whole idea wrong since the start. Money shouldn’t be my only focus throughout the whole thing that I’m doing right now. There must be more to that. If not, this whole things is just shallow and meaningless. I’m sure God blessed me with this amazing opportunity for my own good. I’m sure He wanted to teach me something out of this. Maybe this is what He wanted me to realize. I’ve to admit that I haven’t been listening for a long time and I really miss Him. I miss the moments when Jesus or the Holy Spirit would just whisper words into my heart, that makes me feel so comforted and strong. I miss being so close to Him. I want to go back to my first love, to get back close to my heavenly Father again. I need to listen again. Listening to all the christian songs doesn’t mean listening to God at all. I want to listen to what God has to say to me personally.
I’ve changed my 2009 resolution. To get back closer to Jesus, to get the most out of life, to cherish what I have in life and appreciate them (like the love I found with Shee Laine, my family), to cherish the relationship I have with the people around me and to manage my money well, rather than earning more and more but losing more and more at the same time.
Now this, is life.
The Power of Your Name – Lincoln Brewster [Today Is The Day]
This is such a powerful song by Lincoln Brewster, featuring Darlene Zsech from Hillsong. This is truely an annointed song that will bring conviction to people’s heart about the things that are going on in the world today and to be a part of the chosen ones of Christ to make a change and bring hope.
Surely children weren’t made for the streets
And fathers were not made to leave
Surely this isn’t how it should be
Let Your Kingdom comeSurely nations were not made for war
Or the broken meant to be ignored
Surely this just can’t be what You saw
Let Your Kingdom come
Here in my heartI will live
To carry Your compassion
To love a world that’s broken
To be Your hands and feet
I will give
With the life that I’ve been given
And go beyond religion
To see the world be changed
By the power of Your nameSurely life wasn’t made to regret
And the lost were not made to forget
Surely faith without action is dead
Let Your Kingdom come
Lord break this heartYour name
Is a shelter for the hurting
Jesus Your name
Is a refuge for the weak
Only Your name
Can redeem the undeserving
Jesus Your name
Holds everything I need
Note: All copyrights of this song belongs to Lincoln Brewster and all those involved.
Santos!
For the past 2 days had been very exciting for me to start working in Santos. Though I get home tired but there is a sense of satisfaction. =D
I got allocated to my desk today and meet my project leader. Surprisingly:
(i) I’ve got my name printed on my desk! Woohoo! Feel kinda welcomed and accepted though I’m just a 2nd year noob.
(ii) I’ve got my name displayed on the phone! (Yes I know I’m jakun)
(iii) I’ve got a lap top that I can bring home and an extra monitor for me to multitask! (Yes, even more jakun)
My project leader is from Brunei originally and has been working in Santos for 20+ years. It is really God’s divine blessing and intervention that I have a leader above me that is from the same culture as me and that I can speak the normal Malaysian accent (Not that I have an Aussie accent) to the one I’m reporting to. He is a really nice guy in his late 50’s maybe, with a very wide and friendly smile.
A quick snap of the view of the company from my desk before I left today.
Everything in work is going on smoothly and I’m excited to what is coming. However still, my darling went home to Malaysia today. I’m already missing her like crazy and this will go on for another 3 months! How I wish I have the ability to teleport so that I could teleport back and forth between Adelaide and Malaysia so that I can meet Shee Laine, eat mamak and then come back here and work.
She’s the one I love and miss the most
WHAT ON EARTH!?!?!?!?!
Take a look at this blog and you will soon scream exactly like the title of this post.
http://cheongsamlover.wordpress.com/
After looking at that, you might want to have some fun
Google works wonders.
I have a humongous God
My God is great!
I got the long awaited offer letter from Santos this afternoon and I got a shock of my life when I look into the commencement date on it. This is not a pleasant one. It stated they only offer me for 2 weeks of work. My heart sank immediately. I was told that I will have a 10-weeks offer! What happened? What am I supposed to do for the rest of the summer after that 2 weeks? All these anxiousness and questions arose at an instance in my heart.
However I felt different this time. Despite of all this, I can sense very strongly that God is saying, “Trust in me and stand strong no matter what happens.” So I said a quick prayer and then went across the walk way into Shee Laine’s room. I told her what happened and she immediately hugged me and comfort me. She is always so encouraging and comforting. After that we prayed together. And even when we are praying, I can feel the sense of peace and security by God. Laine told me the same and assured me everything will be fine after praying for me.
Soon after that, I got another email from Santos, with another attachment. This time it is another offer letter, but with the offer duration of 10 weeks! Praise the Lord! He heard our prayers. Indeed, when God said that He will take care of us, He will make a way for every blessing. A big thank you to Jesus and also my dear Laine for praying for me! =D
Huh?
One afternoon in the midst of all the week 12 hassles and stress from the coming exams, and also depressions from all the overdue assignments, my phone suddenly rang from a private number. I thought it was Somkid but the voice from the other end of the phone was a woman’s voice. That’s surprising. To cut the long story short, I got an offer for summer internship in Santos, one of Australia’s oil and gas production company. I’m not sure about this but I always thought of Santos as a very prestigeous company. Seniors always tell us how hard it is to get a job there. This is a pleasant surprise for me. Thank you Jesus for your blessings to me, even something that I’m not worthy of receiving it. Your grace surpasses everything. Indeed when God tells you not to worry during your time of anxiousness, He will work something out for you. Hehe.. =D
I’m Sick!
I’m sick!
Yes sick!
Sick of people who never contacted me about anything, ANYTHING at all or hardly even talk to me even though we’ve known each other for a reasonably long time and suddenly becomes my best dude in class that wants to sit with me, talk to me and follows me wherever I go, doing whatever I’m doing with me;
Sick of them whom I never expected suddenly filled my missed calls and received calls lists in my phone;
Sick of them who calls me early in the morning regardless whether I’m still in bed;
Sick of then who calls me late at night regardless whether I’ve gone to bed;
Sick of them who pretend to be nice and give me left overs from workplace benefits;
WHEN,
(i) I have the solutions to the assignments that is due on the next day;
(ii) I have the solutions to the assignments that is due in 2 hours time;
(iii) I have the extra notes because I copy them whenever the lecturers are talking rather than dozing off;
(iv) I’ve got a car.
How realistic can you people be? Get a life, seriously.
The Parable of The Talents
Yesterday night I was at the music team discipleship and it was totally awesome. Apparently our Paradise worship team has already started to write new songs and work on the new album and we are amongst the first to get to enjoy them! Let me tell you, the songs are amazing. Way more better than the previous albums (Well, at least 3 songs because they only played 3).
Anyway, it was Pastor Mark Anderson’s message after the praise and worship that stroke my heart. His message was about the parable of the talents where 1 master is going away for some time and he gave one of his servants 5 talents, 2 for the next one and 1 for another one. When the master came back, the first and second servant presented twice the amount of talents the master gave them because they invested it and got returns. The last servant just buried that only talent he has and just gave his master back that talent. And you guys know what happens next (The master got pissed off and threw him out of the house).
Yes, we’ve been told before about this parable and we know how we should use and expand our God-blessed talents. But what Pastor Mark gave after this was interesting.
Why is the servant of 1 talent wrong?
HE GOT THE WRONG MOTIVATION
He only does things because he was afraid of his master.
HE GOT THE WRONG UNDERSTANDING
He thought it would be good to protect his master’s property and didn’t know the master’s purpose for giving him that talent and hence didn’t make good use of it.
HE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND HIS POSITION
He think he wasn’t important in his master’s eyes because he was only given 1 talent compared to the other servants.
This 3rd point really strike me because as a guitarist myself I tend to always compare myself with the other guitarist and kept thinking “Why am I not as good as him?”, “Why can’t I do this and that?”, so many why this and why that sometimes bothers me a lot. I didn’t realize that I’ve been blessed my God to be able to play guitar and blessed that I have such good guitars and gears. I didn’t understand that God has given me this mendate and opportunity to serve in His kingdom here on earth while He is away.
Pastor Mark’s words just left me pondering and reflecting upon myself and now I know how important I’m to God despite my guitar skills and how much God has entrusted me with the ability to play guitar for His kingdom. I’m honoured to be blessed with all these from God and I’m gonna stop comparing myself and the others and stop the thoughts that I’m not up to the standards.
Perhaps it’s too late to do this now but I have a new resolution for this year before the year ends: I WANNA IMPROVE MYSELF AND INVEST WHATEVER GOD HAS BLESSED ME WITH THE HELP OF HIS STRENGTH AND HOLY SPIRIT TO HONOUR HIM WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE FOR HE IS MY MIGHTY GOD.
[P/S: And so what if I'm 'churchy' or 'raw' when it comes to God and church. Yes, I listen to christian musics and I the main thing for me to play guitar is to serve in church and not showing off myself in any bands. Does that make me a 'holy-wannabe' or naive christian? I would rather behave like a kid and believe that the pastor's preaching as conveying God's word to me rather than seeing it that trying to brainwashing us for his church's benefit. Does that make me look immature? I don't want to judge myself or anyone here. But if you think that quiting to serve because you think that christian musics suck and does not go up to the 'standards' because you compare christian music to those hardcore heavy metal, controversial and anti-Christ musics that mocks God like Marilyn Manson's or leaving the church because of the politics and think that the pastor just wants to brainwash and manipulate you or being a crazy fan over Marilyn Manson's music so that you can relate to the other MM's fans in an effort to save their souls shows that you are a more mature christian and person and is what God want's you to do, go ahead. You know who you are.]
Where “I” Belong
I just find this song from Hillsong’s new album so personal. It substitutes most of the things I wanna say to God.
There is no height or depth
Neither life nor death
that can take me from all that I find
Here now in Your glory LordNo other powers or love
The things of now or to come
There’s nothing on earth in this life
That could ever separate us LordYour love is never ending
To Your hands we surrender
Where all our sins are washed away
Your grace beyond reason
Has paid for our freedom
We’re made alive in YouWe run to Your throne
Where we belong
Every heart will sing
That Jesus is Lord
Casting all else aside
For the joy of our Christ
Let Your glory fall
Our hearts are filled with Your fireNo other powers or love
The things of now or to come
There’s nothing on earth in this life
That could never separate us Lord
This Is Our God
I just received my CD+DVD+Music Sheet pack from Hillsong for the new album – This Is Our God today.
It was just awesome. Awesome beyond word can describe. No, I’m not referring to the music itself but the spirit filled praise and worship that send tears down my cheek when I worship while watching the DVD. The presence of God was so strong and the lyrics are so anointed and spirit filled. This is what I call life changing.
Watching Mike Guggliemucci singing his song ‘Healer’ while in pain and agony just really encourages me to worship God no matter in whatever situation. He fought a good fight with his sickness and is still fighting it full of faith and boldly.
If you haven’t get yourself one, what are you waiting for? It changed my view of praise and worship. I believe it will do the same to yours.
Paradise OxyGen presents Winter Sonata
This coming 26th of July, 7:30pm at UniSA West Campus. Don’t miss it!
Mosfet!!!
Got a mail package today and guess what? My Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet has arrived from US! This particular pedal means a lot to me because its a gift from my dear Laine. Can’t express how grateful I am to her. Thanks for blessing me with such a great pedal! Love you dear!
This legendary Fulldrive need no more introduction. It is one of the best sounding overdrive pedals out there in the market right now. I was melted by the creamy and smooth overdrive once I plugged it in. Sweet!
Happy family
Update:
This is my pedalboard as of 26th of June 2008.
JS-20th Anniversary!!
Check it out, the Joe Satriani Ibanez JS-20th Anniversary Model guitar with a 3D Silver Surfer in the middle of the guitar. Cool!
The Come Back
I have been getting a lot of scoldings for not blogging for ages some time. Well, my blog, my timing! Just kidding. The fact is I’m quite lazy to blog after the hype of having a new blog. I turned 20 about half a month ago and as I age I start to look at blogging differently. Before this I used to see it as an obligation, at least to myself to blog so that people can see what I write and give comments on what I have written. This makes me no difference with Kenny Sia if I do that (if only I can be that good).
Anyway, blogging to me now is to express my own personal feelings and also to share God’s word and glory to others. Many times I have a very strong urge to blog about something God has spoken to me because I know there are some people out there who need to get to know about the same thing. And many times, I was lazy. I repent.
Many things have been bugging me recently. Exams, ministry, church, friends etc. Well, what often bothers my attention and concentration the most was the ministry I am currently serving in. Yes, that’s right. The worship ministry in Paradise Church Oxygen. To those who don’t know what Oxygen is, this is an international student’s ministry under Paradise Community Church, Australia.
If you have no time for my grandfather story full of sentences that was left hanging and doesn’t make sense, please read the summary at the end of this blog. =P
What bothered me? Mainly as I grow as a guitarist regardless of whether I am playing in church or not, I get exposed to a lot of different sound and music and I am very interested in getting nice sound and settings (who doesn’t?). And I have to admit that in my growth as a guitarist a lot of times I swayed my way. Well, not in a bad way such as listening to black metal or anti-Christ music by Marilyn Manson. I remember making a promise to myself as well as to God when I got my Ibanez that my focus on music will be entirely on His kingdom and glory. The main reason I want to have such a good guitar is that I want to serve better in His ministry and bring glory to His name. I tried very hard to improve myself, exposing myself to all kinds of guitar stuff I can get. With this, the commitment I made slowly faded from my mind. To those who know me, I am a big fan of Joe Satriani.
In my ‘quest’ of ‘improving’ my guitar skills, unconsciously I turned my focus to music like Joe Satriani’s with crazy long 10-minute high speed guitar solo. I defined good guitarists are those who can solo like no body’s business up and down the neck. By that, I started to tweak my guitar settings and sound towards that of Joe Satriani’s.
I’m not saying that Joe Satriani’s music are bad. In fact I am still a big fan of him. But as I drift away from my initial purpose and commitment of having good guitar, amp and pedals, I started to realize that playing guitar is more and more performance based and for self-glory. Sound mans in Oxygen like Zie and Don and my good friend and also a guitarist in Oxygen – Andrew often reminds me that what my guitar sounds like is very ‘rockish’ or ‘metallish’ and doesn’t really suit the praise and worship in church. Also Shee Laine that often say that I am obsessed with all the guitar stuff. I have to admit that at first I was quite pissed by those comments. My settings are those of classic rock musics. Guitarists in the world love that tone. What do you mean that they are not suitable? And a lot of times I asked God what is wrong and recently God just convicted me about what my commitments were for having good instruments and gears. I start to realize how foolish I was. God just brought me back to the reality and my purpose of having this guitar and all the pedals that I have as well as the new amp that God has blessed me. I am supposed to glorify God with these good instruments and equipments and not to pursue idols in the world. I am really thankful to those who commented on my sound in church. I believe that God had placed all of you in that position as part of His plan to bring me back to my ultimate purpose that God has for me.
Alright, back to growing as a guitarist, now a church guitarist. I am not saying that as a church guitarist devoting all that I have to God meaning that I cannot listen to circular music or play songs other than church songs. It is the priority in the heart that makes the difference. Before this I put priority in learning all the technical stuff and Joe Satriani, Steve Vai or whoever’s songs to ‘improve’ and show that I am a good guitarist. Now I find all these foolish, childish and immature. It doesn’t matter to me anymore if I am the best guitarist in the world, the fastest guitarist in the world or the lousiest guitarist or slowest guitarist in the world. With all that I have, I believe that God has provided and made way for me and He will continue to guide me in this ministry of His. I just want to devote and commit my guitar, my pedals, my amp, my guitar skill and all that I have to God again. This time not only with my mind, but with my spirit, soul and heart. Playing guitar is no longer just playing guitar for me. It is part of spiritual growth as well to me as God bring me higher by playing guitar to glorify His name. Whatever God has given me, I want to make full use of it, to bring glory and praise to His name.
It came to my realization also that playing guitar in the church band is part of worshipping. I was always very focused on the playing and technical stuffs of the songs that all I do on stage are performances and not praise and worship. When Sheena and David said that because we worship, we play our instruments, not the other way round. What they said really struck my heart about serving in the ministry. Am I serving with the right attitude and focus? Is my purpose for serving in this ministry in line with what God wants? I remember in Oxygen camp also Sheena reminded us : ‘Do not forget to play our instruments while worshiping’ and not the other way round.
I pray that God forgive my stubbornness and my ignorance all this time and help me to focus in Him everything that I do, not only while serving in the ministry and playing guitar. As I pray that God will lead me to His purpose my me serving in this worship ministry and as I recommit myself to God in my ministry, I believe that there is a fresh start for me and God will be there leading me.
I wanna praise and worship God by playing guitar!
(P/S: Sorry if there were any sentences that doesn’t make sense or paragraphs that were hanging. I am not a good writer in expressing all these things and it’s late at night.)
Summary: I have been drifted away from my purpose of having a good guitar and equipments – that is to serve God in church as an electric guitarist and I want to come back to God asking Him to lead me in the right way and teach me the right attitude to serve Him in His ministry as my purpose of playing guitar is for the glory of His kingdom. =)
The Meaning of Me!
What Yong Ling Means |
 You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you’re too busy having fun to care. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don’t appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don’t get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It’s easy to get you excited… which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don’t stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. |
Hello Peeps!
I know I haven’t been blogging in AGES. So sorry for that. Well, I’m kinda busy since the last time I blogged (yeah right) lately. Maybe I will start slow again in blogging. See ya peeps!
Save Me From Myself
Awaiting my book from Amazon.com
-Brian “Head” Welch-
KoRn ex-guitarist
Writes about his testimony on how he joined KoRn, got to the peak of his career but the lowest valley of his life, met God, left KoRn and kicked drugs. My total salute to this man of God.
