A taste of heaven

Came back from the 3 day/2night retreat with my NTU group yesterday, and it was a good time of both getting to know one another better, to talk about things both regarding christianity and not, and also to teach them/learn together about the overview of the entire bible. Am really glad that the whole group went, even though none of the people outside of our group came and joined us in the end =( (except for Yifen who joined us for the last talk and dinner)

Personally, having to teach the thing meant that it also made us (TYC and I) understand this more, and also the fact that I had my first chance to give a few talks/workshops this time. Am glad that it didn't go way too awry and that they did manage to catch the geist and learn, although I do have room to improve on my presentation for sure.

Unlike my dog who has to stretch like mad to get a taste of the grape, we certainly are blessed in having the priviledge of building one another up whenever we meet, all by God's grace and not by our own merits.

(will post more pictures when I can in Flickr)

Random

The questions that rage on in my mind, all meet up with dead ends, not because there's no answer, but simply because I haven't come to realise yet.
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Seeing the effects of sin in people's lives from talking to various people, and the kind of 'needless' pain they undergo (if only...they had heard and understood the gospel...but that's up to God's sovereignty to reveal what to whom at which place in time) from nothing but lies...saddens me no end. But I'm not God, else I'd have done as I wished...

Looking at myself, seeing no difference between my past and the pagans that are around in this world...the punishment was justified, the salvation undeserved, but yet... and the only response I can have to this massive turning point in life (being transferred from the realm of death to another realm) is Gratitude, and living a new life in the light of this new status. =)

The new life, still hard to live in the continued presence of sin, although being no longer under it's dominion...still needs progress...as many old habits still need to be weeded out (no thanks to having loved lies, and still loving it sometimes, for the past dunno-how-many-years). Still fighting sin, but still sometimes getting tripped up.

But there's also cause for joy also, for the growth and potential in the youths that have the massive priviledge of hearing the bible taught faithfully at such a young age, and the fact that they're thinking also. Great opportunities to mature them(by God's grace, of course), and great opportunities for partnerships in the ministry. And also applies for the congregation as a whole too~

Looking at it all, the work continues(with God's help also; we only continue to encourage others with the gospel, both in understanding and it's outworkings in our lives) as we await the Perfected Kingdom to arrive fully, and one (tiny) part of it starts tomorrow: the retreat to Changi Aloha, where we'll (the NTU group) be doing GBP (not exactly the same material, but the same content). =)

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Image(115)
Originally uploaded by gunblad3.

Blackie! Very old now, but still alive...

Three Faces of the Church

Taken from here(without permission =P ). I am a slow reader alright.

Good reminder on what we should aim to focus on as a whole, and a good start to thinking again about what we ourselves truly focus on as a church.

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Three Faces of the Church

Taking some license with Stephen Covey's best selling tome, "Seven Habits of Higly Effective People", here are three very different, but apt discriptions of church models that exist today. These lists are not exhaustive... and they were written with a broad brush strokes, intentionally, to include a wide variety of church "experiences" in each category. In fact, I would like to know what would your lists comprise of? Read Ephesians 4:11-16 to get a glimpse into the church that glorifies God. Seven highly effective habits of the Contemporary Church that almost always guarantee church growth with very little spiritual impact: 1. Go political, not biblical 2. Go pragmatic, not theological 3. Go psychological, not discipleship 4. Go anthropocentric, not Christocentric 5. Go postmodern, not transcendent 6. Go “share your story”, not “all for His glory” 7. Go sickness, not sin; go disease not, disobedience Seven highly effective habits of the Traditional Church that almost always guarantee church stagnation with very little spiritual impact: 1. Go traditional, not spiritual 2. Go legalistic, not grace 3. Go corporate, not community 4. Go “count converts”, not “make disciples” 5. Go pastoral/elder ruler, not shepherd/servant leader 6. Go more information, not Christlikeness 7. Go programs, not prayer Seven highly effective habits of the Biblical Church that almost always guarantee God’s blessing and spiritual impact: 1. Go supremacy of God and His glory in worship 2. Go sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia, solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria 3. Go The Great Commission and the Two Great Commandments 4. Go take care of the poor, the widow and the orphan 5. Go discipline of sin 6. Go pray without ceasing 7. Go equip the saints for the work of the ministry

Taken from Audience One.

Keyboards

Optimus keyboard
When this becomes available I'd certainy love to own one~~

Unless I intend to try to increase my typing speed (really?) with this instead.

And the best part? I use a laptop currently =D

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Urban Cage

Living for others

It's hard to make the distinction:

When should we be tough?
When should we be soft?
When should we be forthcoming?
When should we be more discrete?
When should we point out errors?
When should we just hold back for the time being (and continue to pray)?

When all these should be decided upon(sometimes at that point in time), all for the sake of others.

Heard one answer to it: "We cross examine our motives, and see whether our motives are to tear them down instead, which is the opposite of what we aim to do." Possible at times, impossible in other situations, to be able to think so objectively on the run. (Thinking back about some past events, it looks like the action taken should've been different, and the outcome probably would've been different, but the thing here is not to wistfully hope to be able to change the past, but rather see what needs to be changed)

Another way is to observe those who're good models and see what's their motives for acting the way they do, deciding whether it's really an example to learn from that's the result of biblical understanding/conviction. And this one will take time, and (of course) the fact that there are godly people around whom we can observe.

But...so...when, should we be which?
(to be continued, hopefully not at another 3am)

Plucked from the jaws of Death

Do you remember the scene from Star Wars, near to the end of The Return Of The Jedi? The Millenium Falcon has just destroyed the main power reactor of the Death Star, and as the entire base starts to blow up, the Millenium Falcon starts to make it's desperate attempt at escaping the base along with another comrade and an enemy TIE fighter, lest they blow up along with the entire death star. In the course of escaping, the flames engulf and destroy the hapless TIE fighter and the allied fighter(was it an X-Wing?), and just as the flames start to engulf the Millenium Falcon itself and they look as if they're all about to be matyred, the ship shoots out of the Death Star, and the crew heaves a great sigh of relief. (Of course, the Death Star blows up, and the Rebel Alliance celebrates the end of the enemy along with their new found furry Ewok friends.)

Exactly the impression I got when I heard today's sermon on Romans 5:12-21. Having seen the bad news of God's anger on ALL men because of their unrighteousness(Rom 1:18-3:20), and the perfect solution solution given by God at the right time(Rom 3:21-26), and now one of aspects of this salvation, I can't help but heave a sigh of relief looking at the doom that we've left(Rom 5:12) and be thankful to the 'rescuer' that plucked us out from this doom into the promise(Rom 5:15-21).

All this, available to anyone who receives it simply by believing in what has been said in the bible, sometimes seems far too good to be true...but that's what grace is about, right? (God never owed us anything, let alone our salvation, but yet He gave his only son to do so.)

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Meow...

Ga-brah

Led another BS today, and I think it was bad.

Not being able to manage group dynamics is one, although that is not that important, except for helping the rest to be able to concentrate without distraction.

But the real prob comes when you end up confusing people along the way, and the thing is not explained clearly. Then the point of the study probably is defeated altogether already, isn't it not?

Not that it's the first time that this has happened, but (in a way) thankfully it doesn't always happen all the time.

A whole lot to be worked on regarding this...a whole lot.