For all those who already left us to go home for the Holidays ...
THIS IS WHAT YOU MISSED!!!
On Christmas night, the few of us brave survivors left here in Perth organized a Christmas party to shake the blues of being ‘left behind’ and to suitably celebrate the importance of the event we call the birth of our Saviour. This awesome party, of course, was held at the one place big enough to house all of us and still look spacious enough at the same time – Mr. Cheng Ho Yan’s house (that's Zion if you didn't already know).
In terms of food, this party was an absolute bomb. Turkey, Ham, Potato Salad… Even Campbell’s Mushroom soup found its way into the menu. Not to mention the Butterscotch date pudding that followed after (I feel fat already).
Apart from the food, this party was actually really going places. I mean, which mini Christmas party had its own poolside entertainment in the form of music through very professional looking speakers and mixer. AND to top it off, a Christmas (somewhat) movie being shown on through a projector on a rented wide screen (Eat your heart out all you Plasma ‘wide-screen’ TVs) very aptly named the Holiday.
Indeed, we strived to provide every possible aspect in the party to cater to the needs of our people, including the one couple! We had lit candles floating around in the pool, Peter’s doing of course that hopeless romantic.
On a nice ending note, our little party even had a nice gift exchange session to top it off whereby some of us got really nice gifts and some of us got, well, chocolate WHICH was also awesome!
Certainly, while Christmas Day did bring about laughter, gaiety, friendships and fun, what came first and foremost to our minds was that on this day, God sent his son to die for our salvation so that we might have a reason to gather and celebrate a la mini party style and because of him, we are what we are, that is of course, Christians having a blast on Christmas Day =).
Wish you were here all you peoples back in your native homelands!
Best wishes from Anonymous_writer via Max's account.
Hi guys and gals.
I hope you had a fantastic Christmas with family and friends and were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas as we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is just a quick post to let you know about the ZPH mission trip to India that I will be a part of. There is a team of eleven people from the church who will all be travelling to India in early January next year. Most of the team will be flying into Delhi on the 2nd of January before catching an overnight train to Udaipur in the state of Rajasthan. We will be spending our time supporting a local missions group by doing devotions with the students of the Bible colleges, visiting orphanages and small village churches, visting the English schools and generally assisting and encouraging the local church workers. Some of our time will also be spent in the town of Navapur in the state of Maharashtra and the two week trip will finish on the 13th of January.
I will be flying to India on the 8th of January and returning to Perth on the 26th so will have the opportunity to remain in India and continue to support the local missionaries after most of the team have returned to Perth. I have no fixed plans for this extra time in India but I would love to visit the poorer areas, teach worship or guitar and preach in the village churches if given the opportunity.
It would be great if you support myself and the rest of the team by prayer for us both now while we are preparing and also while we are in India. Our prayer is that we will be a blessing to the local church and also as a team grow in our conviction to go wherever God calls us and do whatever He calls us to do. You could also pray for safety on the trip, both physically and spiritually (as India is a place with a rich spiritual history) and that we would walk in God's will as we participate in the trip and carry His light with us as we meet the locals. Being a part of this trip to India is both exciting and slightly scary so your prayer is really appreciated.
While we are gone I will try to post updates on the blog about the work we are doing and some stories about what is happening. You can also check out the church's missions blogspot at www.zphmissions.blogspot.com which will be updated every 2-3 days and already has some posts about our preparations for the trip.
For those of you who are overseas at the moment have a great New Year and CNY and we're looking forward to seeing you all back in Perth for another exciting year in the life of UWA zone. Don't forget to book your tickets back early so that you can be the bearer of God's light to all the new students during semester one orientation.
God bless,
Peter
I hope you had a fantastic Christmas with family and friends and were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas as we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is just a quick post to let you know about the ZPH mission trip to India that I will be a part of. There is a team of eleven people from the church who will all be travelling to India in early January next year. Most of the team will be flying into Delhi on the 2nd of January before catching an overnight train to Udaipur in the state of Rajasthan. We will be spending our time supporting a local missions group by doing devotions with the students of the Bible colleges, visiting orphanages and small village churches, visting the English schools and generally assisting and encouraging the local church workers. Some of our time will also be spent in the town of Navapur in the state of Maharashtra and the two week trip will finish on the 13th of January.
I will be flying to India on the 8th of January and returning to Perth on the 26th so will have the opportunity to remain in India and continue to support the local missionaries after most of the team have returned to Perth. I have no fixed plans for this extra time in India but I would love to visit the poorer areas, teach worship or guitar and preach in the village churches if given the opportunity.
It would be great if you support myself and the rest of the team by prayer for us both now while we are preparing and also while we are in India. Our prayer is that we will be a blessing to the local church and also as a team grow in our conviction to go wherever God calls us and do whatever He calls us to do. You could also pray for safety on the trip, both physically and spiritually (as India is a place with a rich spiritual history) and that we would walk in God's will as we participate in the trip and carry His light with us as we meet the locals. Being a part of this trip to India is both exciting and slightly scary so your prayer is really appreciated.
While we are gone I will try to post updates on the blog about the work we are doing and some stories about what is happening. You can also check out the church's missions blogspot at www.zphmissions.blogspot.com which will be updated every 2-3 days and already has some posts about our preparations for the trip.
For those of you who are overseas at the moment have a great New Year and CNY and we're looking forward to seeing you all back in Perth for another exciting year in the life of UWA zone. Don't forget to book your tickets back early so that you can be the bearer of God's light to all the new students during semester one orientation.
God bless,
Peter
Hi guys and gals who are still in Perth.
On Christmas day a group of people from Zion are going caroling at Bentley Park nursing home for the oldies. People are meeting at my house (54 Bywater Way Wilson) at 11:30am then heading over to the nursing home with Santa hats, carol sheets and pressies in hand. We did the same thing last year and the oldies were really blessed to have visitors on a day that can be very lonely for people who don't have family to visit. All are welcome to join us and really get in the spirit of Christmas by focussing on others and not ourselves. Make sure you have lunch before coming and remember it's byo lovely singing voice :-) If you would like to find out more or RSVP to come then contact me on 0432 644 902.
Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and is reminded of our Saviors love for us and all who are still lost.
Much love,
Peter
On Christmas day a group of people from Zion are going caroling at Bentley Park nursing home for the oldies. People are meeting at my house (54 Bywater Way Wilson) at 11:30am then heading over to the nursing home with Santa hats, carol sheets and pressies in hand. We did the same thing last year and the oldies were really blessed to have visitors on a day that can be very lonely for people who don't have family to visit. All are welcome to join us and really get in the spirit of Christmas by focussing on others and not ourselves. Make sure you have lunch before coming and remember it's byo lovely singing voice :-) If you would like to find out more or RSVP to come then contact me on 0432 644 902.
Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and is reminded of our Saviors love for us and all who are still lost.
Much love,
Peter
Now now.....most of u (HOTties who are in perth) should have received the above invitation
...and if you were excited when u first read it (u better...), here's a word from yours truly: REMAIN EXCITED :D
Why?
BECAUSE we have got lots of awesome stuff lined up.......... JUST FOR YOU!!!
here's a sneakpeak to our menu for the night..
are. you. ready?
ready?
ready????!! ><
roasted turkey with cranberry/french onion sauce
lamb with roasted potatoes and pumpkins on the side
ham with pineapple slices
creamy mushroom soup served with tasty garlic bread
a range of pasta, salads..... AND yummilicious sticky date pudding served with ice cream topped with butterscotch sauce...fuyoo!
let's have a FAT christmas together, yes? noooooooo. prosperous would be a better word. =)
okie, til then, take care and make the most of your holidays peoples!
God bless. =)
Hi guys and girls. Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...
(click on the image to expand it and check out your cell for next year)
(click on the image to expand it and check out your cell for next year)
Hi guys and girls. Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for...
(click on the image to expand it and check out your cell for next year)
(click on the image to expand it and check out your cell for next year)
My own personal intercessor in the morning!
A Praying mantis... Hahaha!
A Praying mantis... Hahaha!
My own personal intercessor in the morning!
A Praying mantis... Hahaha!
A Praying mantis... Hahaha!
eloelo fellow uwa-ians.. and curtin/murdoch peeps if u guys do pop by :)
how has the holidays been treating u guys??? :) i hope all of you have been having a good time of rest and ofcourse fun =P now now.. what better way to rest AND have fun AND stay connected with all the zion ppl? OR even get to know some ppl across the zones. heh.. yupyup i'm talking about cell group in SINGAPORE!!!
hehehe.. yes yes zph cell will be brought to the lil island of singapore.. n ur cell leader is none other than yours truly :) [aka AMA] haha.. nono dat aka part was just joking.. anyhow, don't we all wanna stay in tuned with what God and our home church has in stored for us? i'm super excited man :) really really can't wait..
i've already heard stories of how GOd is moving in our midst in terms of burdening people with the need for a zph cell in singapore and i can't tell you how excited i am about it.. i believe its gonna be as awesome as having cell back here too! :) [ok mayb even better cos our refreshments is gonna be AWESOME.. laksa, meepok etc :) ]
alrighty.. so details for the first cell..
11 Dec 09
7pm @ eunice's house
38 Lim Tua Tow Road
Serangoon MRT (nearest)
bring ur bible n notebook
contact Eunice +6596680632 or any other curtin/murdoch/uwa ppl dat u know :)
games: tbc
worship: jongoh
word: eunice
we'll go out for refreshments after k? :)
hehe. i'm super excited until i 4got to send out transport for tmr's svc. hahaha.. dat is just to show u how excited i am. haha.. so lets all be excited for it k? :) i believe God has sth installed for each and everyone of us dis summer! :)
how has the holidays been treating u guys??? :) i hope all of you have been having a good time of rest and ofcourse fun =P now now.. what better way to rest AND have fun AND stay connected with all the zion ppl? OR even get to know some ppl across the zones. heh.. yupyup i'm talking about cell group in SINGAPORE!!!
hehehe.. yes yes zph cell will be brought to the lil island of singapore.. n ur cell leader is none other than yours truly :) [aka AMA] haha.. nono dat aka part was just joking.. anyhow, don't we all wanna stay in tuned with what God and our home church has in stored for us? i'm super excited man :) really really can't wait..
i've already heard stories of how GOd is moving in our midst in terms of burdening people with the need for a zph cell in singapore and i can't tell you how excited i am about it.. i believe its gonna be as awesome as having cell back here too! :) [ok mayb even better cos our refreshments is gonna be AWESOME.. laksa, meepok etc :) ]
alrighty.. so details for the first cell..
11 Dec 09
7pm @ eunice's house
38 Lim Tua Tow Road
Serangoon MRT (nearest)
bring ur bible n notebook
contact Eunice +6596680632 or any other curtin/murdoch/uwa ppl dat u know :)
games: tbc
worship: jongoh
word: eunice
we'll go out for refreshments after k? :)
hehe. i'm super excited until i 4got to send out transport for tmr's svc. hahaha.. dat is just to show u how excited i am. haha.. so lets all be excited for it k? :) i believe God has sth installed for each and everyone of us dis summer! :)
eloelo fellow uwa-ians.. and curtin/murdoch peeps if u guys do pop by :)
how has the holidays been treating u guys??? :) i hope all of you have been having a good time of rest and ofcourse fun =P now now.. what better way to rest AND have fun AND stay connected with all the zion ppl? OR even get to know some ppl across the zones. heh.. yupyup i'm talking about cell group in SINGAPORE!!!
hehehe.. yes yes zph cell will be brought to the lil island of singapore.. n ur cell leader is none other than yours truly :) [aka AMA] haha.. nono dat aka part was just joking.. anyhow, don't we all wanna stay in tuned with what God and our home church has in stored for us? i'm super excited man :) really really can't wait..
i've already heard stories of how GOd is moving in our midst in terms of burdening people with the need for a zph cell in singapore and i can't tell you how excited i am about it.. i believe its gonna be as awesome as having cell back here too! :) [ok mayb even better cos our refreshments is gonna be AWESOME.. laksa, meepok etc :) ]
alrighty.. so details for the first cell..
11 Dec 09
7pm @ eunice's house
38 Lim Tua Tow Road
Serangoon MRT (nearest)
bring ur bible n notebook
contact Eunice +6596680632 or any other curtin/murdoch/uwa ppl dat u know :)
games: tbc
worship: jongoh
word: eunice
we'll go out for refreshments after k? :)
hehe. i'm super excited until i 4got to send out transport for tmr's svc. hahaha.. dat is just to show u how excited i am. haha.. so lets all be excited for it k? :) i believe God has sth installed for each and everyone of us dis summer! :)
how has the holidays been treating u guys??? :) i hope all of you have been having a good time of rest and ofcourse fun =P now now.. what better way to rest AND have fun AND stay connected with all the zion ppl? OR even get to know some ppl across the zones. heh.. yupyup i'm talking about cell group in SINGAPORE!!!
hehehe.. yes yes zph cell will be brought to the lil island of singapore.. n ur cell leader is none other than yours truly :) [aka AMA] haha.. nono dat aka part was just joking.. anyhow, don't we all wanna stay in tuned with what God and our home church has in stored for us? i'm super excited man :) really really can't wait..
i've already heard stories of how GOd is moving in our midst in terms of burdening people with the need for a zph cell in singapore and i can't tell you how excited i am about it.. i believe its gonna be as awesome as having cell back here too! :) [ok mayb even better cos our refreshments is gonna be AWESOME.. laksa, meepok etc :) ]
alrighty.. so details for the first cell..
11 Dec 09
7pm @ eunice's house
38 Lim Tua Tow Road
Serangoon MRT (nearest)
bring ur bible n notebook
contact Eunice +6596680632 or any other curtin/murdoch/uwa ppl dat u know :)
games: tbc
worship: jongoh
word: eunice
we'll go out for refreshments after k? :)
hehe. i'm super excited until i 4got to send out transport for tmr's svc. hahaha.. dat is just to show u how excited i am. haha.. so lets all be excited for it k? :) i believe God has sth installed for each and everyone of us dis summer! :)
Hey guys. Just got back from the Summer cell of our newest zone sup :-) It looks like it's going to be an awesome couple of months. This is a shout out for everyone who will be staying in Perth this Summer and is excited about what we can do as a zone over Christmas!
Here some ideas to think about:
- Josh has been talking about doing an Indo Mie recipe book for a while. How about we have an Iron chef competition between the two cell groups? Only one rule... Each dish must have the noodles, fried onion and at least one of the other ingredients from a packet of Mi Goreng. We can show the results as a series on Zion news next year. Hmmm... Judges could be Henry, Steph Sim, Gerald, Mark??? There were some crazy ideas for dishes thrown around at Maccas tonight...
- We should do a Christmas party for Passion. Any ideas??? Pool party/BBQ/Christmas sit-down dinner/games night/theme party???
- Let's try to claim the front 3-4 rows of seats at church for just UWA people each Sunday and bring a little bit of UWA back to Curtin :-p
- Paintballing? Trips to the beach? Go-karting? Swan Valley?
- Maybe a worship night for the whole of UWA at the start of next sem when everyone's back in Perth ??? Yay!!!
Let us know what you think :-)
Jbu's
Here some ideas to think about:
- Josh has been talking about doing an Indo Mie recipe book for a while. How about we have an Iron chef competition between the two cell groups? Only one rule... Each dish must have the noodles, fried onion and at least one of the other ingredients from a packet of Mi Goreng. We can show the results as a series on Zion news next year. Hmmm... Judges could be Henry, Steph Sim, Gerald, Mark??? There were some crazy ideas for dishes thrown around at Maccas tonight...
- We should do a Christmas party for Passion. Any ideas??? Pool party/BBQ/Christmas sit-down dinner/games night/theme party???
- Let's try to claim the front 3-4 rows of seats at church for just UWA people each Sunday and bring a little bit of UWA back to Curtin :-p
- Paintballing? Trips to the beach? Go-karting? Swan Valley?
- Maybe a worship night for the whole of UWA at the start of next sem when everyone's back in Perth ??? Yay!!!
Let us know what you think :-)
Jbu's
Hey guys. Just got back from the Summer cell of our newest zone sup :-) It looks like it's going to be an awesome couple of months. This is a shout out for everyone who will be staying in Perth this Summer and is excited about what we can do as a zone over Christmas!
Here some ideas to think about:
- Josh has been talking about doing an Indo Mie recipe book for a while. How about we have an Iron chef competition between the two cell groups? Only one rule... Each dish must have the noodles, fried onion and at least one of the other ingredients from a packet of Mi Goreng. We can show the results as a series on Zion news next year. Hmmm... Judges could be Henry, Steph Sim, Gerald, Mark??? There were some crazy ideas for dishes thrown around at Maccas tonight...
- We should do a Christmas party for Passion. Any ideas??? Pool party/BBQ/Christmas sit-down dinner/games night/theme party???
- Let's try to claim the front 3-4 rows of seats at church for just UWA people each Sunday and bring a little bit of UWA back to Curtin :-p
- Paintballing? Trips to the beach? Go-karting? Swan Valley?
- Maybe a worship night for the whole of UWA at the start of next sem when everyone's back in Perth ??? Yay!!!
Let us know what you think :-)
Jbu's
Here some ideas to think about:
- Josh has been talking about doing an Indo Mie recipe book for a while. How about we have an Iron chef competition between the two cell groups? Only one rule... Each dish must have the noodles, fried onion and at least one of the other ingredients from a packet of Mi Goreng. We can show the results as a series on Zion news next year. Hmmm... Judges could be Henry, Steph Sim, Gerald, Mark??? There were some crazy ideas for dishes thrown around at Maccas tonight...
- We should do a Christmas party for Passion. Any ideas??? Pool party/BBQ/Christmas sit-down dinner/games night/theme party???
- Let's try to claim the front 3-4 rows of seats at church for just UWA people each Sunday and bring a little bit of UWA back to Curtin :-p
- Paintballing? Trips to the beach? Go-karting? Swan Valley?
- Maybe a worship night for the whole of UWA at the start of next sem when everyone's back in Perth ??? Yay!!!
Let us know what you think :-)
Jbu's
Alright! All mah homies, crownies and minions that are under my cell group, we're having cell TONIGHT at Yao Long's house. If you don't know where that is, you are exempted from coming to cell group. SIF! If you don't know where that is, ask, knock and seek to any of the names in BOLD on the list. It's the big big house on Caporn St, Crawley 6009 Perth WA.
Tonight's cell group will be a time of nourishing, as we've been having our fun times ever since exams ended and have yet to have a normal proper cell group. I would like to encourage you to be there to welcome a few people:
Mr. Jeremy Tan on the guitar for Worship,
Mr. Leonel Cheong with his grooves on icebreaker,
Ms. Eunice Teo, Ms. Allison Goh, Mr. Joshua Lau and Mr. Stanley Bong with their magical touch on refreshments.
(For those of you who go 'Hah? I wasn't told.. Well, you're being told right now!) THAT'S the way Joshua Lim Hui How runs his cell group~~~~
A-FOOOO~~~~~
Of course, as an accountant, time is money is time. So cell will START at 6:30pm SHARP. Latecomers WILL be penalized to do either worship/icebreakers/refreshment/word/vision sharing/quiet time sharing/prayer/dance/drama and a whole lot more. As you can see, there are BIG plans for this cell group, so youz allz betterz comez preparedz!
Spread the word to those unfortunate people in my cell group..
Look forward to it and be very... very... excited. hehe!
Joshua!!!!!!
Tonight's cell group will be a time of nourishing, as we've been having our fun times ever since exams ended and have yet to have a normal proper cell group. I would like to encourage you to be there to welcome a few people:
Mr. Jeremy Tan on the guitar for Worship,
Mr. Leonel Cheong with his grooves on icebreaker,
Ms. Eunice Teo, Ms. Allison Goh, Mr. Joshua Lau and Mr. Stanley Bong with their magical touch on refreshments.
(For those of you who go 'Hah? I wasn't told.. Well, you're being told right now!) THAT'S the way Joshua Lim Hui How runs his cell group~~~~
A-FOOOO~~~~~
Of course, as an accountant, time is money is time. So cell will START at 6:30pm SHARP. Latecomers WILL be penalized to do either worship/icebreakers/refreshment/word/vision sharing/quiet time sharing/prayer/dance/drama and a whole lot more. As you can see, there are BIG plans for this cell group, so youz allz betterz comez preparedz!
Spread the word to those unfortunate people in my cell group..
Look forward to it and be very... very... excited. hehe!
Joshua!!!!!!
Alright! All mah homies, crownies and minions that are under my cell group, we're having cell TONIGHT at Yao Long's house. If you don't know where that is, you are exempted from coming to cell group. SIF! If you don't know where that is, ask, knock and seek to any of the names in BOLD on the list. It's the big big house on Caporn St, Crawley 6009 Perth WA.
Tonight's cell group will be a time of nourishing, as we've been having our fun times ever since exams ended and have yet to have a normal proper cell group. I would like to encourage you to be there to welcome a few people:
Mr. Jeremy Tan on the guitar for Worship,
Mr. Leonel Cheong with his grooves on icebreaker,
Ms. Eunice Teo, Ms. Allison Goh, Mr. Joshua Lau and Mr. Stanley Bong with their magical touch on refreshments.
(For those of you who go 'Hah? I wasn't told.. Well, you're being told right now!) THAT'S the way Joshua Lim Hui How runs his cell group~~~~
A-FOOOO~~~~~
Of course, as an accountant, time is money is time. So cell will START at 6:30pm SHARP. Latecomers WILL be penalized to do either worship/icebreakers/refreshment/word/vision sharing/quiet time sharing/prayer/dance/drama and a whole lot more. As you can see, there are BIG plans for this cell group, so youz allz betterz comez preparedz!
Spread the word to those unfortunate people in my cell group..
Look forward to it and be very... very... excited. hehe!
Joshua!!!!!!
Tonight's cell group will be a time of nourishing, as we've been having our fun times ever since exams ended and have yet to have a normal proper cell group. I would like to encourage you to be there to welcome a few people:
Mr. Jeremy Tan on the guitar for Worship,
Mr. Leonel Cheong with his grooves on icebreaker,
Ms. Eunice Teo, Ms. Allison Goh, Mr. Joshua Lau and Mr. Stanley Bong with their magical touch on refreshments.
(For those of you who go 'Hah? I wasn't told.. Well, you're being told right now!) THAT'S the way Joshua Lim Hui How runs his cell group~~~~
A-FOOOO~~~~~
Of course, as an accountant, time is money is time. So cell will START at 6:30pm SHARP. Latecomers WILL be penalized to do either worship/icebreakers/refreshment/word/vision sharing/quiet time sharing/prayer/dance/drama and a whole lot more. As you can see, there are BIG plans for this cell group, so youz allz betterz comez preparedz!
Spread the word to those unfortunate people in my cell group..
Look forward to it and be very... very... excited. hehe!
Joshua!!!!!!
Hey guys!!!
So our theme for tomorrow is fairies since everyone always teases me about my surname!! Hah!! No no ... just kidding ... though I really wish that could happen, though I doubt none of us would be able to take each other seriously ;p
ANYWAYS ...
For those in Max Ting's awesome cell tmw, here are the details!!
Place: Yaushu's (Monash Ave)
Time: 7pm
Attire: Appropriate
What YOU bring
- Bible (Your Sword!)
- Notebook (iPhones are welcomed, blackberries should go become blue)
- Yourself
- Your brain (Yes Henry, don't forget this time k?)
What to expect
- Games
- Worship
- Short (in contrast to my height) Edi
- FOOD
- Heck lot of F-U-N
So there it is! I see u guys at Yaushu's tmw yeah!? If you have any problems (transport, was never told, dunno where the house is, whose max?! .. etc .. ) You can call/drop me a text at 0421924905 OR call your previous cell leader and drop your burden on THEM (highly recommended by the way *grin*)
Peace out
Max
So our theme for tomorrow is fairies since everyone always teases me about my surname!! Hah!! No no ... just kidding ... though I really wish that could happen, though I doubt none of us would be able to take each other seriously ;p
ANYWAYS ...
For those in Max Ting's awesome cell tmw, here are the details!!
Place: Yaushu's (Monash Ave)
Time: 7pm
Attire: Appropriate
What YOU bring
- Bible (Your Sword!)
- Notebook (iPhones are welcomed, blackberries should go become blue)
- Yourself
- Your brain (Yes Henry, don't forget this time k?)
What to expect
- Games
- Worship
- Short (in contrast to my height) Edi
- FOOD
- Heck lot of F-U-N
So there it is! I see u guys at Yaushu's tmw yeah!? If you have any problems (transport, was never told, dunno where the house is, whose max?! .. etc .. ) You can call/drop me a text at 0421924905 OR call your previous cell leader and drop your burden on THEM (highly recommended by the way *grin*)
Peace out
Max
Hey guys!!!
So our theme for tomorrow is fairies since everyone always teases me about my surname!! Hah!! No no ... just kidding ... though I really wish that could happen, though I doubt none of us would be able to take each other seriously ;p
ANYWAYS ...
For those in Max Ting's awesome cell tmw, here are the details!!
Place: Yaushu's (Monash Ave)
Time: 7pm
Attire: Appropriate
What YOU bring
- Bible (Your Sword!)
- Notebook (iPhones are welcomed, blackberries should go become blue)
- Yourself
- Your brain (Yes Henry, don't forget this time k?)
What to expect
- Games
- Worship
- Short (in contrast to my height) Edi
- FOOD
- Heck lot of F-U-N
So there it is! I see u guys at Yaushu's tmw yeah!? If you have any problems (transport, was never told, dunno where the house is, whose max?! .. etc .. ) You can call/drop me a text at 0421924905 OR call your previous cell leader and drop your burden on THEM (highly recommended by the way *grin*)
Peace out
Max
So our theme for tomorrow is fairies since everyone always teases me about my surname!! Hah!! No no ... just kidding ... though I really wish that could happen, though I doubt none of us would be able to take each other seriously ;p
ANYWAYS ...
For those in Max Ting's awesome cell tmw, here are the details!!
Place: Yaushu's (Monash Ave)
Time: 7pm
Attire: Appropriate
What YOU bring
- Bible (Your Sword!)
- Notebook (iPhones are welcomed, blackberries should go become blue)
- Yourself
- Your brain (Yes Henry, don't forget this time k?)
What to expect
- Games
- Worship
- Short (in contrast to my height) Edi
- FOOD
- Heck lot of F-U-N
So there it is! I see u guys at Yaushu's tmw yeah!? If you have any problems (transport, was never told, dunno where the house is, whose max?! .. etc .. ) You can call/drop me a text at 0421924905 OR call your previous cell leader and drop your burden on THEM (highly recommended by the way *grin*)
Peace out
Max
Hi guys and gals.
Here are the long awaited Cell lists for the Summer break (starting this Friday 27th Nov). Your zone sups have been working on the cell lists for next year but unfortunately we are unable to release them yet BUT it is highly likely that you will find yourself in a cell with people from your Summer Cell.
In other news Josh and myself would like to welcome mr Max Ting as a new zone sup for UWA!!! And this summer there will be two cell groups, one led by Max and the other led by Josh Lim (who always talks about how much he misses cell leading).
Without any further ado may I present the lists...
If you can't find your name on the list please contact me (Peter) on 0432 644 902 or talk to your previous cell leader. We were having a lot of fun cutting and pasting names and didn't mean to cut you out :-(
Here are the long awaited Cell lists for the Summer break (starting this Friday 27th Nov). Your zone sups have been working on the cell lists for next year but unfortunately we are unable to release them yet BUT it is highly likely that you will find yourself in a cell with people from your Summer Cell.
In other news Josh and myself would like to welcome mr Max Ting as a new zone sup for UWA!!! And this summer there will be two cell groups, one led by Max and the other led by Josh Lim (who always talks about how much he misses cell leading).
Without any further ado may I present the lists...
If you can't find your name on the list please contact me (Peter) on 0432 644 902 or talk to your previous cell leader. We were having a lot of fun cutting and pasting names and didn't mean to cut you out :-(
God bless,
Peter
NB. Aaaarrggh. Just realised that I've left off some people who finished their studies this year and are going back home for good :-( Just follow your previous cell leader ok?
Hi guys and gals.
Here are the long awaited Cell lists for the Summer break (starting this Friday 27th Nov). Your zone sups have been working on the cell lists for next year but unfortunately we are unable to release them yet BUT it is highly likely that you will find yourself in a cell with people from your Summer Cell.
In other news Josh and myself would like to welcome mr Max Ting as a new zone sup for UWA!!! And this summer there will be two cell groups, one led by Max and the other led by Josh Lim (who always talks about how much he misses cell leading).
Without any further ado may I present the lists...
If you can't find your name on the list please contact me (Peter) on 0432 644 902 or talk to your previous cell leader. We were having a lot of fun cutting and pasting names and didn't mean to cut you out :-(
Here are the long awaited Cell lists for the Summer break (starting this Friday 27th Nov). Your zone sups have been working on the cell lists for next year but unfortunately we are unable to release them yet BUT it is highly likely that you will find yourself in a cell with people from your Summer Cell.
In other news Josh and myself would like to welcome mr Max Ting as a new zone sup for UWA!!! And this summer there will be two cell groups, one led by Max and the other led by Josh Lim (who always talks about how much he misses cell leading).
Without any further ado may I present the lists...
If you can't find your name on the list please contact me (Peter) on 0432 644 902 or talk to your previous cell leader. We were having a lot of fun cutting and pasting names and didn't mean to cut you out :-(
God bless,
Peter
NB. Aaaarrggh. Just realised that I've left off some people who finished their studies this year and are going back home for good :-( Just follow your previous cell leader ok?
Psalm 23
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not flunk
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break
He restores my faith in study guides
He leads me to better study habits
For my grades' sake
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades
I will not have a nervous breakdown
For thou art with me
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me
Thou givest me the answer in moments of blankness
Thou anointest my head with understanding
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognise
Surely passing grades and flying colours shall follow me
All the days of my examinations
And I shall not have to dwell in this exam hall forever
Psalm 23
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not flunk
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break
He restores my faith in study guides
He leads me to better study habits
For my grades' sake
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades
I will not have a nervous breakdown
For thou art with me
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me
Thou givest me the answer in moments of blankness
Thou anointest my head with understanding
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognise
Surely passing grades and flying colours shall follow me
All the days of my examinations
And I shall not have to dwell in this exam hall forever
Hi guyz and girlz. Greetings from Dwellingup (I’m camping down here for a couple of days). Well... this is it... we’ve reached the last day and the last sharing from the 40 DOL series. I trust everyone has been challenged and encouraged by the words and the life of Jesus as we’ve explored them over the last 6 weeks. Anyway, todays sharing is gonna be really long... this is what I was planning to share at combined cell...
Maybe I’ll start with a story about two people I know. I knew the girl first so let’s start with her. She came to Australia to study but while she was here she was invited to a Christian conference and had an awesome experience with God and decided to give her life to God. She started going to a church and served with heaps of energy and passion. One day when she was in her final year of studies she was at uni having lunch in a café and reading her Bible when this guy came up to her and asked her if she was a Christian. He had recently become a Christian as well. He told her about how he used to play at a really high level of sport then how he got involved in drug use and getting drunk and started getting into fights. He told her how he’d got to his lowest point before deciding to start reading the Bible and going to church to see if Jesus could change his life.
This girl and this guy got to know each other a bit better and met up together a few times and pretty quickly feelings started to grow between them. Not too long later they met up with her pastor and told him that they were going to start dating. Then she got some really bad news. One of her close family members had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was slowly dying. She was broken. How could this God of love allow this to happen? Why did it have to happen to her? Why not someone else?
The guy tried to be there for her during this time. He would drive her to uni and then asked her if she wanted to move in with him and his parents. By this stage she had given up on God, after all, how could a God of love allow this to happen to her family member, so she decided to move in with the guy. They soon stopped going to church and gradually he started going back to his old ways. He started drinking and they would have terrible arguments in the house. When her close relative finally died things got worse. When they were arguing she started slapping and punching him and eventually he started pushing and even hitting her too. They moved out of the parents house so they could have some more space but they continued arguing most days and she would sometimes get a knife from the kitchen and threaten to stab him or kill herself.
Of course her friends tried to help. Sometimes they even confronted the guy and told him how bad he was to be treating her like that. She even decided to leave a few times but then he would start crying and telling her how much he loved her and that she couldn’t leave. And then she would realise that she really loved him too and remembered all the good times they’d had together. She was hurting inside and so was he.
Then her mum came to Australia determined to take her home. The guy really wanted to get on well with the girls mum so he arranged a holiday for them all and they had a great time together spending heaps of time at the beach enjoying the sunny weather. But the cost of the holiday just added to the big credit card bills that had accrued and when they arrived back in the city another argument broke out and this time the mum was involved and was pushed into a wall during the yelling. After the mum left the house she hatched a plan with the girls friends to go to her house and take her to the airport to fly straight back home so she could finally escape this situation.
I was asked by the friends to be one of the people who went to the house with another of the friends to get the girl and take her to the airport. When we go there everything was normal and peaceful and after talking for 15 minutes the girl finally agreed to at least come out and have coffee with us. During the next couple of hours told us that she knew that they were not in a good relationship, she knew that she was not good for him and he wasn’t good for her, she knew that the best thing was to leave BUT she didn’t know who she was anymore and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She ended up deciding to stay with the guy so at 1am we finally took her back to their house.
So this is how I end up at outside her house at 1am in the morning after giving her the option of leaving. While she had been gone the guys parents had found out what was happening and were waiting outside the house furious about what was happening. There was a big argument during which the dad said:
“I know they’ve got problems but when you see them together it’s obvious that they are in love.”
“To me, that’s not love.”
“What right do you have to stand here and tell me what love is? I’ve lived more that twice your lifetime and experienced marriage. I’ll tell you what love is!”
*** Pause story ***
Hmmm. He had a good point. What right did I have to tell him or anyone about love? Clearly we had different views about what love is...
So then the question is What is Love???
Scholars and song-writers and poets and philosophers and relgious people have tried to answer that question for thousands of years resulting in many different views on what love is. But they’ve all been asking the wrong question. If you just focus on the love, you miss the point. Love is the symptom, not the disease (but this is one disease we should all want to catch hehe). Love is about people, thoughts, actions, decisions, desires, feelings... to know love you need to know someone...
The right question is not ‘What is Love?’ but ‘Who is Love?’
The Bible clearly tell us the answer in 1st John 4:8:
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God demonstrates what love is because of His character. God defines what love is because of His being. Every choice that God makes is a choice of love. A scale of love should start at zero and finish with God because there is no greater example of love than Him. He is the yardstick that we can measure all other examples of love against.
One of the problems Josh and I have as your zone sups is that we aren’t as perfect as God. Actually, as I think a bit more about it, that’s the only real problem we have. If it wasn’t that we aren’t as perfect as God we would be perfect. Right??? If only we could live up to Gods definition of love:
1st Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Fortunately, God lives up to His definition of love. I want to focus on the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” for a bit. God “trusts” us with the ability to make the right decisions now that we are Christians. God “hopes” that we will make the right one in every step of our walk with Him. And God “perseveres” when we fail and continues to “trust” and “hope” that we will turn back to Him. That’s why God hasn’t given up on the girl in the story because He is a God of love. He lives up to His definition of love in the way that He treats us and our decisions.
But wait, there’s more... God’s definition of love is evident in every one of His choices, decisions and actions... even His plan of salvation...
Everybody who was at baptism would have heard me share the exhortation. I said something about how amazing God’s love for us is:
“There we were, separated from the perfect God we now know because even the slightest stain of our smallest sin was too horrendous to be near His Holy presence. Nothing we could ever do would bridge the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. So what did He do? He sent His son Jesus to earth to live and demonstrate a perfect sinless life for 30 years and then He allowed Him to die a painful death on the cross. And then He offered to swap our life with Jesus’. He takes our sin, we take his perfect life. His death on the cross pays the atonement for our sin and now we can carry Jesus’ perfect life to God and say “here is a life without flaw so that now I also am perfect and I can come into Your presence.”
Afterwards I realised that I’d left something out. That God’s love is actually much bigger than what I had said. I realised that God’s love doesn’t just stop with our salvation but is even more amazing in what He asks us to do next... He gives us the gift of sharing and displaying His love to the lost... He entrusts us with the responsibility of their salvation!!! Crazy hey! But can you see the love in this??? Can you see the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres?" I think it’s amazing that our God who has seen humanity fail so many times, who has seen me fail so many times, decides to display this love by “trusting” us with other peoples salvation, “hoping” that we don’t fail in our task and “persevering” in His plan even when we do fail. God trusts us. God trusts Christians all around the world. God trusts YOU!
God trusts you to live in the way that He created you to live and to be a discipler of nations through your life and actions. I don't know about you but to me this is an amazing encouragement. If God trusts us to do it, if He trust us to live in this way then surely it is possible. If God believes in me, maybe I can believe in myself too... not to achieve things in my own strength but through Christ who strengthens me! If God trusts that I can be a light to reflect His glory and salt flavours that taste of His majesty and a person set aside for Him in holiness, maybe I can believe that my life can be turned around. Maybe I can believe that I am who He says I am.
So let’s go back to the story...
Earlier I said that the girl no longer knew who she was anymore, that she was hurting inside, that she had given up on God. Well, that night she decided to stay. She went back to the same old situation even with the option in front of her of freely leaving the guy and making a new start in her home country. So after talking to both the guy and the girl for another two hours we left and at 3am had to explain to the mum why she didn’t come back with us.
But the story doesn’t end here...
The night before combined cell I got another phone call from the girls friends saying that she had finally decided to leave and asking for my help to take her to the airport. They wanted me to come just in case the guy found out and things became violent again. So we took her to the airport with her mum. We waited with her while they bought tickets and saw them off into the departure gate. I went to combined cell the next day with the plan of sharing how God had “always hoped, always trusted and always perservered” in her life until she made the right decision.
But the story doesn’t end here either...
Two days later I found out that before the plane left she had got off and gone back to the guy again. I think I got a little taste of what God feels like when He “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” but we break His trust, fail and continue to fail. I can only imagine what the girls mum feels like at the moment. She had this amazing plan for her daughter, to free her from the bondage of the situation she was in, to give her the chance of a new life if only her daughter would take it. She was there when her daughter checked in her baggage and walked through the security check into the depature lounge waiting to board the plane to her new life. She was there when her daughter turned her back and went back to the same old life, same old problems. Remind you of anyone?
But the story still hasn't finished...
And the truth is that I don't know what the ending will hold. I wish that I could tell you that it ends with flowers and roses and a happily-ever-after. But only time will tell. What I do know is that God hasn't changed. He is still the God of love and He isn't going to change any time soon. He is still there for the girl and the guy ''trusting, hoping and persevering," waiting for them to come back to Him. And here's the cool thing: He's still there for you and He's still there for me and He will continue be there for you and me.
But let's not wait and continue to live in our old life of old mistakes. God believes in you and trusts you to live in His ways. Let's live in His new life NOW. Let's live in His promises NOW. Let's decide to live according to His plan and not our plan NOW. Let's not stop with 40 days of love but let's continue to grow in God's love AND in love with God for the rest of our lives. Times may come when we stumble or fall or lose energy or feel emo, but God wont change and we can continue knowing that our Father in Heaven loves us, trusts us, hopes for us and isn't going to change.
Much love :-)
Maybe I’ll start with a story about two people I know. I knew the girl first so let’s start with her. She came to Australia to study but while she was here she was invited to a Christian conference and had an awesome experience with God and decided to give her life to God. She started going to a church and served with heaps of energy and passion. One day when she was in her final year of studies she was at uni having lunch in a café and reading her Bible when this guy came up to her and asked her if she was a Christian. He had recently become a Christian as well. He told her about how he used to play at a really high level of sport then how he got involved in drug use and getting drunk and started getting into fights. He told her how he’d got to his lowest point before deciding to start reading the Bible and going to church to see if Jesus could change his life.
This girl and this guy got to know each other a bit better and met up together a few times and pretty quickly feelings started to grow between them. Not too long later they met up with her pastor and told him that they were going to start dating. Then she got some really bad news. One of her close family members had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was slowly dying. She was broken. How could this God of love allow this to happen? Why did it have to happen to her? Why not someone else?
The guy tried to be there for her during this time. He would drive her to uni and then asked her if she wanted to move in with him and his parents. By this stage she had given up on God, after all, how could a God of love allow this to happen to her family member, so she decided to move in with the guy. They soon stopped going to church and gradually he started going back to his old ways. He started drinking and they would have terrible arguments in the house. When her close relative finally died things got worse. When they were arguing she started slapping and punching him and eventually he started pushing and even hitting her too. They moved out of the parents house so they could have some more space but they continued arguing most days and she would sometimes get a knife from the kitchen and threaten to stab him or kill herself.
Of course her friends tried to help. Sometimes they even confronted the guy and told him how bad he was to be treating her like that. She even decided to leave a few times but then he would start crying and telling her how much he loved her and that she couldn’t leave. And then she would realise that she really loved him too and remembered all the good times they’d had together. She was hurting inside and so was he.
Then her mum came to Australia determined to take her home. The guy really wanted to get on well with the girls mum so he arranged a holiday for them all and they had a great time together spending heaps of time at the beach enjoying the sunny weather. But the cost of the holiday just added to the big credit card bills that had accrued and when they arrived back in the city another argument broke out and this time the mum was involved and was pushed into a wall during the yelling. After the mum left the house she hatched a plan with the girls friends to go to her house and take her to the airport to fly straight back home so she could finally escape this situation.
I was asked by the friends to be one of the people who went to the house with another of the friends to get the girl and take her to the airport. When we go there everything was normal and peaceful and after talking for 15 minutes the girl finally agreed to at least come out and have coffee with us. During the next couple of hours told us that she knew that they were not in a good relationship, she knew that she was not good for him and he wasn’t good for her, she knew that the best thing was to leave BUT she didn’t know who she was anymore and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She ended up deciding to stay with the guy so at 1am we finally took her back to their house.
So this is how I end up at outside her house at 1am in the morning after giving her the option of leaving. While she had been gone the guys parents had found out what was happening and were waiting outside the house furious about what was happening. There was a big argument during which the dad said:
“I know they’ve got problems but when you see them together it’s obvious that they are in love.”
“To me, that’s not love.”
“What right do you have to stand here and tell me what love is? I’ve lived more that twice your lifetime and experienced marriage. I’ll tell you what love is!”
*** Pause story ***
Hmmm. He had a good point. What right did I have to tell him or anyone about love? Clearly we had different views about what love is...
So then the question is What is Love???
Scholars and song-writers and poets and philosophers and relgious people have tried to answer that question for thousands of years resulting in many different views on what love is. But they’ve all been asking the wrong question. If you just focus on the love, you miss the point. Love is the symptom, not the disease (but this is one disease we should all want to catch hehe). Love is about people, thoughts, actions, decisions, desires, feelings... to know love you need to know someone...
The right question is not ‘What is Love?’ but ‘Who is Love?’
The Bible clearly tell us the answer in 1st John 4:8:
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God demonstrates what love is because of His character. God defines what love is because of His being. Every choice that God makes is a choice of love. A scale of love should start at zero and finish with God because there is no greater example of love than Him. He is the yardstick that we can measure all other examples of love against.
One of the problems Josh and I have as your zone sups is that we aren’t as perfect as God. Actually, as I think a bit more about it, that’s the only real problem we have. If it wasn’t that we aren’t as perfect as God we would be perfect. Right??? If only we could live up to Gods definition of love:
1st Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Fortunately, God lives up to His definition of love. I want to focus on the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” for a bit. God “trusts” us with the ability to make the right decisions now that we are Christians. God “hopes” that we will make the right one in every step of our walk with Him. And God “perseveres” when we fail and continues to “trust” and “hope” that we will turn back to Him. That’s why God hasn’t given up on the girl in the story because He is a God of love. He lives up to His definition of love in the way that He treats us and our decisions.
But wait, there’s more... God’s definition of love is evident in every one of His choices, decisions and actions... even His plan of salvation...
Everybody who was at baptism would have heard me share the exhortation. I said something about how amazing God’s love for us is:
“There we were, separated from the perfect God we now know because even the slightest stain of our smallest sin was too horrendous to be near His Holy presence. Nothing we could ever do would bridge the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. So what did He do? He sent His son Jesus to earth to live and demonstrate a perfect sinless life for 30 years and then He allowed Him to die a painful death on the cross. And then He offered to swap our life with Jesus’. He takes our sin, we take his perfect life. His death on the cross pays the atonement for our sin and now we can carry Jesus’ perfect life to God and say “here is a life without flaw so that now I also am perfect and I can come into Your presence.”
Afterwards I realised that I’d left something out. That God’s love is actually much bigger than what I had said. I realised that God’s love doesn’t just stop with our salvation but is even more amazing in what He asks us to do next... He gives us the gift of sharing and displaying His love to the lost... He entrusts us with the responsibility of their salvation!!! Crazy hey! But can you see the love in this??? Can you see the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres?" I think it’s amazing that our God who has seen humanity fail so many times, who has seen me fail so many times, decides to display this love by “trusting” us with other peoples salvation, “hoping” that we don’t fail in our task and “persevering” in His plan even when we do fail. God trusts us. God trusts Christians all around the world. God trusts YOU!
God trusts you to live in the way that He created you to live and to be a discipler of nations through your life and actions. I don't know about you but to me this is an amazing encouragement. If God trusts us to do it, if He trust us to live in this way then surely it is possible. If God believes in me, maybe I can believe in myself too... not to achieve things in my own strength but through Christ who strengthens me! If God trusts that I can be a light to reflect His glory and salt flavours that taste of His majesty and a person set aside for Him in holiness, maybe I can believe that my life can be turned around. Maybe I can believe that I am who He says I am.
So let’s go back to the story...
Earlier I said that the girl no longer knew who she was anymore, that she was hurting inside, that she had given up on God. Well, that night she decided to stay. She went back to the same old situation even with the option in front of her of freely leaving the guy and making a new start in her home country. So after talking to both the guy and the girl for another two hours we left and at 3am had to explain to the mum why she didn’t come back with us.
But the story doesn’t end here...
The night before combined cell I got another phone call from the girls friends saying that she had finally decided to leave and asking for my help to take her to the airport. They wanted me to come just in case the guy found out and things became violent again. So we took her to the airport with her mum. We waited with her while they bought tickets and saw them off into the departure gate. I went to combined cell the next day with the plan of sharing how God had “always hoped, always trusted and always perservered” in her life until she made the right decision.
But the story doesn’t end here either...
Two days later I found out that before the plane left she had got off and gone back to the guy again. I think I got a little taste of what God feels like when He “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” but we break His trust, fail and continue to fail. I can only imagine what the girls mum feels like at the moment. She had this amazing plan for her daughter, to free her from the bondage of the situation she was in, to give her the chance of a new life if only her daughter would take it. She was there when her daughter checked in her baggage and walked through the security check into the depature lounge waiting to board the plane to her new life. She was there when her daughter turned her back and went back to the same old life, same old problems. Remind you of anyone?
But the story still hasn't finished...
And the truth is that I don't know what the ending will hold. I wish that I could tell you that it ends with flowers and roses and a happily-ever-after. But only time will tell. What I do know is that God hasn't changed. He is still the God of love and He isn't going to change any time soon. He is still there for the girl and the guy ''trusting, hoping and persevering," waiting for them to come back to Him. And here's the cool thing: He's still there for you and He's still there for me and He will continue be there for you and me.
But let's not wait and continue to live in our old life of old mistakes. God believes in you and trusts you to live in His ways. Let's live in His new life NOW. Let's live in His promises NOW. Let's decide to live according to His plan and not our plan NOW. Let's not stop with 40 days of love but let's continue to grow in God's love AND in love with God for the rest of our lives. Times may come when we stumble or fall or lose energy or feel emo, but God wont change and we can continue knowing that our Father in Heaven loves us, trusts us, hopes for us and isn't going to change.
Much love :-)
Hi guyz and girlz. Greetings from Dwellingup (I’m camping down here for a couple of days). Well... this is it... we’ve reached the last day and the last sharing from the 40 DOL series. I trust everyone has been challenged and encouraged by the words and the life of Jesus as we’ve explored them over the last 6 weeks. Anyway, todays sharing is gonna be really long... this is what I was planning to share at combined cell...
Maybe I’ll start with a story about two people I know. I knew the girl first so let’s start with her. She came to Australia to study but while she was here she was invited to a Christian conference and had an awesome experience with God and decided to give her life to God. She started going to a church and served with heaps of energy and passion. One day when she was in her final year of studies she was at uni having lunch in a café and reading her Bible when this guy came up to her and asked her if she was a Christian. He had recently become a Christian as well. He told her about how he used to play at a really high level of sport then how he got involved in drug use and getting drunk and started getting into fights. He told her how he’d got to his lowest point before deciding to start reading the Bible and going to church to see if Jesus could change his life.
This girl and this guy got to know each other a bit better and met up together a few times and pretty quickly feelings started to grow between them. Not too long later they met up with her pastor and told him that they were going to start dating. Then she got some really bad news. One of her close family members had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was slowly dying. She was broken. How could this God of love allow this to happen? Why did it have to happen to her? Why not someone else?
The guy tried to be there for her during this time. He would drive her to uni and then asked her if she wanted to move in with him and his parents. By this stage she had given up on God, after all, how could a God of love allow this to happen to her family member, so she decided to move in with the guy. They soon stopped going to church and gradually he started going back to his old ways. He started drinking and they would have terrible arguments in the house. When her close relative finally died things got worse. When they were arguing she started slapping and punching him and eventually he started pushing and even hitting her too. They moved out of the parents house so they could have some more space but they continued arguing most days and she would sometimes get a knife from the kitchen and threaten to stab him or kill herself.
Of course her friends tried to help. Sometimes they even confronted the guy and told him how bad he was to be treating her like that. She even decided to leave a few times but then he would start crying and telling her how much he loved her and that she couldn’t leave. And then she would realise that she really loved him too and remembered all the good times they’d had together. She was hurting inside and so was he.
Then her mum came to Australia determined to take her home. The guy really wanted to get on well with the girls mum so he arranged a holiday for them all and they had a great time together spending heaps of time at the beach enjoying the sunny weather. But the cost of the holiday just added to the big credit card bills that had accrued and when they arrived back in the city another argument broke out and this time the mum was involved and was pushed into a wall during the yelling. After the mum left the house she hatched a plan with the girls friends to go to her house and take her to the airport to fly straight back home so she could finally escape this situation.
I was asked by the friends to be one of the people who went to the house with another of the friends to get the girl and take her to the airport. When we go there everything was normal and peaceful and after talking for 15 minutes the girl finally agreed to at least come out and have coffee with us. During the next couple of hours told us that she knew that they were not in a good relationship, she knew that she was not good for him and he wasn’t good for her, she knew that the best thing was to leave BUT she didn’t know who she was anymore and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She ended up deciding to stay with the guy so at 1am we finally took her back to their house.
So this is how I end up at outside her house at 1am in the morning after giving her the option of leaving. While she had been gone the guys parents had found out what was happening and were waiting outside the house furious about what was happening. There was a big argument during which the dad said:
“I know they’ve got problems but when you see them together it’s obvious that they are in love.”
“To me, that’s not love.”
“What right do you have to stand here and tell me what love is? I’ve lived more that twice your lifetime and experienced marriage. I’ll tell you what love is!”
*** Pause story ***
Hmmm. He had a good point. What right did I have to tell him or anyone about love? Clearly we had different views about what love is...
So then the question is What is Love???
Scholars and song-writers and poets and philosophers and relgious people have tried to answer that question for thousands of years resulting in many different views on what love is. But they’ve all been asking the wrong question. If you just focus on the love, you miss the point. Love is the symptom, not the disease (but this is one disease we should all want to catch hehe). Love is about people, thoughts, actions, decisions, desires, feelings... to know love you need to know someone...
The right question is not ‘What is Love?’ but ‘Who is Love?’
The Bible clearly tell us the answer in 1st John 4:8:
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God demonstrates what love is because of His character. God defines what love is because of His being. Every choice that God makes is a choice of love. A scale of love should start at zero and finish with God because there is no greater example of love than Him. He is the yardstick that we can measure all other examples of love against.
One of the problems Josh and I have as your zone sups is that we aren’t as perfect as God. Actually, as I think a bit more about it, that’s the only real problem we have. If it wasn’t that we aren’t as perfect as God we would be perfect. Right??? If only we could live up to Gods definition of love:
1st Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Fortunately, God lives up to His definition of love. I want to focus on the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” for a bit. God “trusts” us with the ability to make the right decisions now that we are Christians. God “hopes” that we will make the right one in every step of our walk with Him. And God “perseveres” when we fail and continues to “trust” and “hope” that we will turn back to Him. That’s why God hasn’t given up on the girl in the story because He is a God of love. He lives up to His definition of love in the way that He treats us and our decisions.
But wait, there’s more... God’s definition of love is evident in every one of His choices, decisions and actions... even His plan of salvation...
Everybody who was at baptism would have heard me share the exhortation. I said something about how amazing God’s love for us is:
“There we were, separated from the perfect God we now know because even the slightest stain of our smallest sin was too horrendous to be near His Holy presence. Nothing we could ever do would bridge the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. So what did He do? He sent His son Jesus to earth to live and demonstrate a perfect sinless life for 30 years and then He allowed Him to die a painful death on the cross. And then He offered to swap our life with Jesus’. He takes our sin, we take his perfect life. His death on the cross pays the atonement for our sin and now we can carry Jesus’ perfect life to God and say “here is a life without flaw so that now I also am perfect and I can come into Your presence.”
Afterwards I realised that I’d left something out. That God’s love is actually much bigger than what I had said. I realised that God’s love doesn’t just stop with our salvation but is even more amazing in what He asks us to do next... He gives us the gift of sharing and displaying His love to the lost... He entrusts us with the responsibility of their salvation!!! Crazy hey! But can you see the love in this??? Can you see the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres?" I think it’s amazing that our God who has seen humanity fail so many times, who has seen me fail so many times, decides to display this love by “trusting” us with other peoples salvation, “hoping” that we don’t fail in our task and “persevering” in His plan even when we do fail. God trusts us. God trusts Christians all around the world. God trusts YOU!
God trusts you to live in the way that He created you to live and to be a discipler of nations through your life and actions. I don't know about you but to me this is an amazing encouragement. If God trusts us to do it, if He trust us to live in this way then surely it is possible. If God believes in me, maybe I can believe in myself too... not to achieve things in my own strength but through Christ who strengthens me! If God trusts that I can be a light to reflect His glory and salt flavours that taste of His majesty and a person set aside for Him in holiness, maybe I can believe that my life can be turned around. Maybe I can believe that I am who He says I am.
So let’s go back to the story...
Earlier I said that the girl no longer knew who she was anymore, that she was hurting inside, that she had given up on God. Well, that night she decided to stay. She went back to the same old situation even with the option in front of her of freely leaving the guy and making a new start in her home country. So after talking to both the guy and the girl for another two hours we left and at 3am had to explain to the mum why she didn’t come back with us.
But the story doesn’t end here...
The night before combined cell I got another phone call from the girls friends saying that she had finally decided to leave and asking for my help to take her to the airport. They wanted me to come just in case the guy found out and things became violent again. So we took her to the airport with her mum. We waited with her while they bought tickets and saw them off into the departure gate. I went to combined cell the next day with the plan of sharing how God had “always hoped, always trusted and always perservered” in her life until she made the right decision.
But the story doesn’t end here either...
Two days later I found out that before the plane left she had got off and gone back to the guy again. I think I got a little taste of what God feels like when He “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” but we break His trust, fail and continue to fail. I can only imagine what the girls mum feels like at the moment. She had this amazing plan for her daughter, to free her from the bondage of the situation she was in, to give her the chance of a new life if only her daughter would take it. She was there when her daughter checked in her baggage and walked through the security check into the depature lounge waiting to board the plane to her new life. She was there when her daughter turned her back and went back to the same old life, same old problems. Remind you of anyone?
But the story still hasn't finished...
And the truth is that I don't know what the ending will hold. I wish that I could tell you that it ends with flowers and roses and a happily-ever-after. But only time will tell. What I do know is that God hasn't changed. He is still the God of love and He isn't going to change any time soon. He is still there for the girl and the guy ''trusting, hoping and persevering," waiting for them to come back to Him. And here's the cool thing: He's still there for you and He's still there for me and He will continue be there for you and me.
But let's not wait and continue to live in our old life of old mistakes. God believes in you and trusts you to live in His ways. Let's live in His new life NOW. Let's live in His promises NOW. Let's decide to live according to His plan and not our plan NOW. Let's not stop with 40 days of love but let's continue to grow in God's love AND in love with God for the rest of our lives. Times may come when we stumble or fall or lose energy or feel emo, but God wont change and we can continue knowing that our Father in Heaven loves us, trusts us, hopes for us and isn't going to change.
Much love :-)
Maybe I’ll start with a story about two people I know. I knew the girl first so let’s start with her. She came to Australia to study but while she was here she was invited to a Christian conference and had an awesome experience with God and decided to give her life to God. She started going to a church and served with heaps of energy and passion. One day when she was in her final year of studies she was at uni having lunch in a café and reading her Bible when this guy came up to her and asked her if she was a Christian. He had recently become a Christian as well. He told her about how he used to play at a really high level of sport then how he got involved in drug use and getting drunk and started getting into fights. He told her how he’d got to his lowest point before deciding to start reading the Bible and going to church to see if Jesus could change his life.
This girl and this guy got to know each other a bit better and met up together a few times and pretty quickly feelings started to grow between them. Not too long later they met up with her pastor and told him that they were going to start dating. Then she got some really bad news. One of her close family members had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was slowly dying. She was broken. How could this God of love allow this to happen? Why did it have to happen to her? Why not someone else?
The guy tried to be there for her during this time. He would drive her to uni and then asked her if she wanted to move in with him and his parents. By this stage she had given up on God, after all, how could a God of love allow this to happen to her family member, so she decided to move in with the guy. They soon stopped going to church and gradually he started going back to his old ways. He started drinking and they would have terrible arguments in the house. When her close relative finally died things got worse. When they were arguing she started slapping and punching him and eventually he started pushing and even hitting her too. They moved out of the parents house so they could have some more space but they continued arguing most days and she would sometimes get a knife from the kitchen and threaten to stab him or kill herself.
Of course her friends tried to help. Sometimes they even confronted the guy and told him how bad he was to be treating her like that. She even decided to leave a few times but then he would start crying and telling her how much he loved her and that she couldn’t leave. And then she would realise that she really loved him too and remembered all the good times they’d had together. She was hurting inside and so was he.
Then her mum came to Australia determined to take her home. The guy really wanted to get on well with the girls mum so he arranged a holiday for them all and they had a great time together spending heaps of time at the beach enjoying the sunny weather. But the cost of the holiday just added to the big credit card bills that had accrued and when they arrived back in the city another argument broke out and this time the mum was involved and was pushed into a wall during the yelling. After the mum left the house she hatched a plan with the girls friends to go to her house and take her to the airport to fly straight back home so she could finally escape this situation.
I was asked by the friends to be one of the people who went to the house with another of the friends to get the girl and take her to the airport. When we go there everything was normal and peaceful and after talking for 15 minutes the girl finally agreed to at least come out and have coffee with us. During the next couple of hours told us that she knew that they were not in a good relationship, she knew that she was not good for him and he wasn’t good for her, she knew that the best thing was to leave BUT she didn’t know who she was anymore and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She ended up deciding to stay with the guy so at 1am we finally took her back to their house.
So this is how I end up at outside her house at 1am in the morning after giving her the option of leaving. While she had been gone the guys parents had found out what was happening and were waiting outside the house furious about what was happening. There was a big argument during which the dad said:
“I know they’ve got problems but when you see them together it’s obvious that they are in love.”
“To me, that’s not love.”
“What right do you have to stand here and tell me what love is? I’ve lived more that twice your lifetime and experienced marriage. I’ll tell you what love is!”
*** Pause story ***
Hmmm. He had a good point. What right did I have to tell him or anyone about love? Clearly we had different views about what love is...
So then the question is What is Love???
Scholars and song-writers and poets and philosophers and relgious people have tried to answer that question for thousands of years resulting in many different views on what love is. But they’ve all been asking the wrong question. If you just focus on the love, you miss the point. Love is the symptom, not the disease (but this is one disease we should all want to catch hehe). Love is about people, thoughts, actions, decisions, desires, feelings... to know love you need to know someone...
The right question is not ‘What is Love?’ but ‘Who is Love?’
The Bible clearly tell us the answer in 1st John 4:8:
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
God demonstrates what love is because of His character. God defines what love is because of His being. Every choice that God makes is a choice of love. A scale of love should start at zero and finish with God because there is no greater example of love than Him. He is the yardstick that we can measure all other examples of love against.
One of the problems Josh and I have as your zone sups is that we aren’t as perfect as God. Actually, as I think a bit more about it, that’s the only real problem we have. If it wasn’t that we aren’t as perfect as God we would be perfect. Right??? If only we could live up to Gods definition of love:
1st Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Fortunately, God lives up to His definition of love. I want to focus on the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” for a bit. God “trusts” us with the ability to make the right decisions now that we are Christians. God “hopes” that we will make the right one in every step of our walk with Him. And God “perseveres” when we fail and continues to “trust” and “hope” that we will turn back to Him. That’s why God hasn’t given up on the girl in the story because He is a God of love. He lives up to His definition of love in the way that He treats us and our decisions.
But wait, there’s more... God’s definition of love is evident in every one of His choices, decisions and actions... even His plan of salvation...
Everybody who was at baptism would have heard me share the exhortation. I said something about how amazing God’s love for us is:
“There we were, separated from the perfect God we now know because even the slightest stain of our smallest sin was too horrendous to be near His Holy presence. Nothing we could ever do would bridge the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. So what did He do? He sent His son Jesus to earth to live and demonstrate a perfect sinless life for 30 years and then He allowed Him to die a painful death on the cross. And then He offered to swap our life with Jesus’. He takes our sin, we take his perfect life. His death on the cross pays the atonement for our sin and now we can carry Jesus’ perfect life to God and say “here is a life without flaw so that now I also am perfect and I can come into Your presence.”
Afterwards I realised that I’d left something out. That God’s love is actually much bigger than what I had said. I realised that God’s love doesn’t just stop with our salvation but is even more amazing in what He asks us to do next... He gives us the gift of sharing and displaying His love to the lost... He entrusts us with the responsibility of their salvation!!! Crazy hey! But can you see the love in this??? Can you see the “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres?" I think it’s amazing that our God who has seen humanity fail so many times, who has seen me fail so many times, decides to display this love by “trusting” us with other peoples salvation, “hoping” that we don’t fail in our task and “persevering” in His plan even when we do fail. God trusts us. God trusts Christians all around the world. God trusts YOU!
God trusts you to live in the way that He created you to live and to be a discipler of nations through your life and actions. I don't know about you but to me this is an amazing encouragement. If God trusts us to do it, if He trust us to live in this way then surely it is possible. If God believes in me, maybe I can believe in myself too... not to achieve things in my own strength but through Christ who strengthens me! If God trusts that I can be a light to reflect His glory and salt flavours that taste of His majesty and a person set aside for Him in holiness, maybe I can believe that my life can be turned around. Maybe I can believe that I am who He says I am.
So let’s go back to the story...
Earlier I said that the girl no longer knew who she was anymore, that she was hurting inside, that she had given up on God. Well, that night she decided to stay. She went back to the same old situation even with the option in front of her of freely leaving the guy and making a new start in her home country. So after talking to both the guy and the girl for another two hours we left and at 3am had to explain to the mum why she didn’t come back with us.
But the story doesn’t end here...
The night before combined cell I got another phone call from the girls friends saying that she had finally decided to leave and asking for my help to take her to the airport. They wanted me to come just in case the guy found out and things became violent again. So we took her to the airport with her mum. We waited with her while they bought tickets and saw them off into the departure gate. I went to combined cell the next day with the plan of sharing how God had “always hoped, always trusted and always perservered” in her life until she made the right decision.
But the story doesn’t end here either...
Two days later I found out that before the plane left she had got off and gone back to the guy again. I think I got a little taste of what God feels like when He “always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” but we break His trust, fail and continue to fail. I can only imagine what the girls mum feels like at the moment. She had this amazing plan for her daughter, to free her from the bondage of the situation she was in, to give her the chance of a new life if only her daughter would take it. She was there when her daughter checked in her baggage and walked through the security check into the depature lounge waiting to board the plane to her new life. She was there when her daughter turned her back and went back to the same old life, same old problems. Remind you of anyone?
But the story still hasn't finished...
And the truth is that I don't know what the ending will hold. I wish that I could tell you that it ends with flowers and roses and a happily-ever-after. But only time will tell. What I do know is that God hasn't changed. He is still the God of love and He isn't going to change any time soon. He is still there for the girl and the guy ''trusting, hoping and persevering," waiting for them to come back to Him. And here's the cool thing: He's still there for you and He's still there for me and He will continue be there for you and me.
But let's not wait and continue to live in our old life of old mistakes. God believes in you and trusts you to live in His ways. Let's live in His new life NOW. Let's live in His promises NOW. Let's decide to live according to His plan and not our plan NOW. Let's not stop with 40 days of love but let's continue to grow in God's love AND in love with God for the rest of our lives. Times may come when we stumble or fall or lose energy or feel emo, but God wont change and we can continue knowing that our Father in Heaven loves us, trusts us, hopes for us and isn't going to change.
Much love :-)
Second last day! Woo!
For you UWA Leaders, isn't this a familiar topic? We just had a conversation about this last Saturday. Ironic, huh? haha. I know I said this on Saturday, but it is something I really believe in and something we have to be aware of. It goes like this: We do not live in a world of reality, we live in a world of perceptions. The sooner we realize this, the better our lives would be, because we would start being real with God, and being real with people.
We live in a world where people accept what they want to accept, believe what they want to believe rather than accepting and believing the reality. We have let other people, or the 'world' determine on our behalf, what is good, what is not, which is better, and which sucks. In saying that, we can also conclude that most of us do not lead our lives, we just accept them. Most of the time, if we are honest with ourselves, it is because we feel when things go wrong, we won't have to take up the responsibility of the failure and we can play the blame game. But God did not intend our lives to be led like this. The only one person that should determine the course of our lives is our Lord Jesus Christ. The opinion of everyone else falls short. This goes back to my previous sharing that as Christians, "The word of God is our sole source of faith and our absolute rule of conduct". (Ref: Day 12)
Jesus was never an idealist. He was a realist. He says things as they were and he never made assumptions or let people determine his position or who he is. This society can't stand realists. People who would go up to them and tell them that they way they are living is not right and tell/show them how life should be lived. It was the same in Jesus's day where Jesus told the Pharisees that their teachings and ways were wrong, they decided that they had to get rid of Jesus to maintain their little world of 'zen' and order. hehe. Not much has changed today, has it? We are so caught up in our little world that when someone or something comes to rock our world (Woo! MJ!), it is easier for us to quickly dismiss or get rid of whatever it is that is rocking our world rather than to check what foundation our 'world' is based on.
That is just one aspect of living in our ideal or perception. What about those ideals that we have created for ourselves? hmm? Starting to feel the thorn in your side, eh. hehe. Best illustration for this would be BGR! hahaha. Don't we believe we know who the BEST person is for us? I mean, we know ourselves best, and therefore we definitely know what we need or rather, who we need. Right... (sarcasm) hahaha. We believe that this 'person' would complete us, or fulfil all our needs. Ideal, huh? But reality is this: What do you think YOU can do that would fill the other person's needs or what makes YOU think YOU complete them? *Ouch!*
But, of course as your dear and nice Zone Sup (yay!), I can't just spot the problems we have and not at least help us realize which side of life we have been living. Here's how:
When we live in a world of ideals, we are always focusing on ourselves, and that is the perfect situation for pride and everything else to come in, especially for Satan to take a foothold in our life. When we live in a world of reality, your focus is on others. Simple. What can I do to meet their needs? How can I be a better person for him/her? What can I do to make life easier for them? What can I do to see his/her God-intended purposes fulfilled? =) Just a couple of questions to kick-start us into reality. God bless!
P.S I would love to have a conversation with anyone about this, as I was unable to go into much detail by simply putting up some thoughts on the blog. =)
Second last day! Woo!
For you UWA Leaders, isn't this a familiar topic? We just had a conversation about this last Saturday. Ironic, huh? haha. I know I said this on Saturday, but it is something I really believe in and something we have to be aware of. It goes like this: We do not live in a world of reality, we live in a world of perceptions. The sooner we realize this, the better our lives would be, because we would start being real with God, and being real with people.
We live in a world where people accept what they want to accept, believe what they want to believe rather than accepting and believing the reality. We have let other people, or the 'world' determine on our behalf, what is good, what is not, which is better, and which sucks. In saying that, we can also conclude that most of us do not lead our lives, we just accept them. Most of the time, if we are honest with ourselves, it is because we feel when things go wrong, we won't have to take up the responsibility of the failure and we can play the blame game. But God did not intend our lives to be led like this. The only one person that should determine the course of our lives is our Lord Jesus Christ. The opinion of everyone else falls short. This goes back to my previous sharing that as Christians, "The word of God is our sole source of faith and our absolute rule of conduct". (Ref: Day 12)
Jesus was never an idealist. He was a realist. He says things as they were and he never made assumptions or let people determine his position or who he is. This society can't stand realists. People who would go up to them and tell them that they way they are living is not right and tell/show them how life should be lived. It was the same in Jesus's day where Jesus told the Pharisees that their teachings and ways were wrong, they decided that they had to get rid of Jesus to maintain their little world of 'zen' and order. hehe. Not much has changed today, has it? We are so caught up in our little world that when someone or something comes to rock our world (Woo! MJ!), it is easier for us to quickly dismiss or get rid of whatever it is that is rocking our world rather than to check what foundation our 'world' is based on.
That is just one aspect of living in our ideal or perception. What about those ideals that we have created for ourselves? hmm? Starting to feel the thorn in your side, eh. hehe. Best illustration for this would be BGR! hahaha. Don't we believe we know who the BEST person is for us? I mean, we know ourselves best, and therefore we definitely know what we need or rather, who we need. Right... (sarcasm) hahaha. We believe that this 'person' would complete us, or fulfil all our needs. Ideal, huh? But reality is this: What do you think YOU can do that would fill the other person's needs or what makes YOU think YOU complete them? *Ouch!*
But, of course as your dear and nice Zone Sup (yay!), I can't just spot the problems we have and not at least help us realize which side of life we have been living. Here's how:
When we live in a world of ideals, we are always focusing on ourselves, and that is the perfect situation for pride and everything else to come in, especially for Satan to take a foothold in our life. When we live in a world of reality, your focus is on others. Simple. What can I do to meet their needs? How can I be a better person for him/her? What can I do to make life easier for them? What can I do to see his/her God-intended purposes fulfilled? =) Just a couple of questions to kick-start us into reality. God bless!
P.S I would love to have a conversation with anyone about this, as I was unable to go into much detail by simply putting up some thoughts on the blog. =)
Loving thy enemies.
Tough Call there Pastor Hollday, i though to myself as i read today's reading. I have a hard time loving my family, my friends and beautiful people in the way Jesus loved me let alone my enemies.
Honestly, I say its quite hard to wrap our minds around it. Can you imagine members of the KKK having a beer with Chris Rock, can you imagine Sir Alex playing Wii with Rafa whats his face, can you imagine Al Gore having a cup of tea with Carbon Dioxide?
Jokes aside, can we imagine one day living a world where Israelites start loving their Palestinian "neighbours". I mean, thats the bottom line aint it? Loving the hardest people to love, our enemies.
But its not even about arch enemy type relationships cause i mean, how many of us have a Batman vs The Joker relationship. This comes down to even people who hurt us, who intentionally harm us, people who for no reason what so ever try to destroy us. ( See examples given in the book i.e Slap in the face, law suit etc)
How many of us can face that sort of situation and say, Im going to love you brother, come here and let me give you a egg mayo sandwich. I find it hard man. Its tough loving the dude whos just tried to knock you out, its tough trying to love the dude whos just backstabbed you in a million places, its tough loving that FACE thats so rude (jokes jokes).
And i guess thats it. its so tough that we find it impossible on our own strength. I know its really becoming such a cliche; Depend on God, Depend on Jesus, he will give you the strength required to love.
But man its really the truth. Why else did He die on the cross for us? If we could do it on our own and follow the commands, follow all the laws just by wanting to do it, then the grace of God would not be required, then Jesus's death and resurrection would not be required.
This is the bottom line, its not just enough to desire to change, to desire to love our enemies. We need his power, we need the Holy Spirit indwelling in us daily. That power comes from God and we need to ask for it. Jesus's death has given us a definite hope of a life in Heaven, eternal life. But his life, his resurrection, that has given us a hope of abundant life, here on Earth. That means his life enables us to live that abundant life here now, to live transformed lives.
Lastly, why Love our Enemies? Because putting love into action, especially a tough assignment like loving our Enemies really tests our character, and when we learn to depend on His power for this tough tough impossible thing, we know we are moving to that next level, where we can be truly like Jesus, slowly transformed into his likeness. For me, it beings by praying for my enemies, and i know like Jesus, thats how we start to love. Ps Hollday says it on Pg314, when we choose to love in this slightest way, we choose to be like God.
Friends, Lets Choose to be like God today.
Shalom,
Jems
Loving thy enemies.
Tough Call there Pastor Hollday, i though to myself as i read today's reading. I have a hard time loving my family, my friends and beautiful people in the way Jesus loved me let alone my enemies.
Honestly, I say its quite hard to wrap our minds around it. Can you imagine members of the KKK having a beer with Chris Rock, can you imagine Sir Alex playing Wii with Rafa whats his face, can you imagine Al Gore having a cup of tea with Carbon Dioxide?
Jokes aside, can we imagine one day living a world where Israelites start loving their Palestinian "neighbours". I mean, thats the bottom line aint it? Loving the hardest people to love, our enemies.
But its not even about arch enemy type relationships cause i mean, how many of us have a Batman vs The Joker relationship. This comes down to even people who hurt us, who intentionally harm us, people who for no reason what so ever try to destroy us. ( See examples given in the book i.e Slap in the face, law suit etc)
How many of us can face that sort of situation and say, Im going to love you brother, come here and let me give you a egg mayo sandwich. I find it hard man. Its tough loving the dude whos just tried to knock you out, its tough trying to love the dude whos just backstabbed you in a million places, its tough loving that FACE thats so rude (jokes jokes).
And i guess thats it. its so tough that we find it impossible on our own strength. I know its really becoming such a cliche; Depend on God, Depend on Jesus, he will give you the strength required to love.
But man its really the truth. Why else did He die on the cross for us? If we could do it on our own and follow the commands, follow all the laws just by wanting to do it, then the grace of God would not be required, then Jesus's death and resurrection would not be required.
This is the bottom line, its not just enough to desire to change, to desire to love our enemies. We need his power, we need the Holy Spirit indwelling in us daily. That power comes from God and we need to ask for it. Jesus's death has given us a definite hope of a life in Heaven, eternal life. But his life, his resurrection, that has given us a hope of abundant life, here on Earth. That means his life enables us to live that abundant life here now, to live transformed lives.
Lastly, why Love our Enemies? Because putting love into action, especially a tough assignment like loving our Enemies really tests our character, and when we learn to depend on His power for this tough tough impossible thing, we know we are moving to that next level, where we can be truly like Jesus, slowly transformed into his likeness. For me, it beings by praying for my enemies, and i know like Jesus, thats how we start to love. Ps Hollday says it on Pg314, when we choose to love in this slightest way, we choose to be like God.
Friends, Lets Choose to be like God today.
Shalom,
Jems
Now, take a look at that cross, and look at those words. What does it say? "For you". It says "for you".Jesus died, for you,
He edured the pain, for you
He was spat in the face, for you
He was pushed, mock, flogged, for you
He was whipped, slashed, for you,
He bore the bitter piercing crown of thorns, for you,
He did it,
He did it all,
all for you....
What do you have to say about that? Sometimes, we just forget what He did for us on the cross. Sometimes, we don't really appreciate what He did for us. Sometimes, we even end up doubting Him, His death, that cross.
We should all be ashamed, including myself, if we had that.
BUT, but but but...look at what Jesus did while He was hung on the cross, as his final breath were numbered...Jesus uttered these words while struggling to catch His breath..
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" Luke 23:34.
Do you think you will even utter those words when we are in Jesus' shoes? I don't think so. I think we will be wishing in our thought that all of those who had done this to me will pay pay pay!! But, hey, that's not what Jesus did. He prayed for them, begging His Father in Heaven to forgive them. Knowing full well our human nature, Jesus still chose forgave them.
Sacrificial love. Love sacrificially.
Jesus told us to love people just like He Himself loved us. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" John 13:34. We learned that a couple of days ago ya? Now, sacrificial love. It costs you. Take for example, Jesus. For us, for our sake, for our salvation, He paid it with His life. Now, reiterating on what the bible say "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" John 13:34. We were commanded to do so!! but you might say "i'm just nothing, i'm too weak, too shy, too afraid".
Golden rule : "Do for others what you would like them to do for you(Matt 7:12).
So, how do you implement this Golden rule into your life?
1. You need to know that only Jesus can give the power to do what he taught us to do. The Golden rule that he introduced and taught us, he will definitely give us the power to do it. No such thing as He tells us to do something and don't give us the power to do so. It's like telling someone to help us drive our car to some place but you gave his a car with no petrol in it...how on earth will the car ever get to the destination? Jesus had given you the power, He already had. So, what are you waiting for?
2. We've got to make a decision and take the first step. Again, the car analogy. You can never reach a place or a destination, unless you move your legs and feet, and get yourself into that car and drive it. Wow, that's a lot of first steps. Hm..if you're not satisfied with that, take the escalators for example. If you don't take the first step, you will never reach the top!!
The Golden rule is something that we hear quite often but do we ever implement it into our own lives? Sometimes, we do bad to others, and expect them to do good unto us. It might be selfish ambition. We manipulated people for the sake of our own gain. We are humans, we are not perfect, that's why, it's mentioned so so so many times, that we must always depend on God's power. Sacrificial love. God showed us the ultimate example of it when He sent His son to die on the cross. God did it so that we will do it. I'm not saying that He expects us to hang ourselves on the cross, but to take home the message that love is sacrificial.
I know that today's devotion doesn't seem to be long, but , take a look again at the cross, think of what Jesus did for you, and think about His sacrificial love for you.
God bless
jim
Now, take a look at that cross, and look at those words. What does it say? "For you". It says "for you".Jesus died, for you,
He edured the pain, for you
He was spat in the face, for you
He was pushed, mock, flogged, for you
He was whipped, slashed, for you,
He bore the bitter piercing crown of thorns, for you,
He did it,
He did it all,
all for you....
What do you have to say about that? Sometimes, we just forget what He did for us on the cross. Sometimes, we don't really appreciate what He did for us. Sometimes, we even end up doubting Him, His death, that cross.
We should all be ashamed, including myself, if we had that.
BUT, but but but...look at what Jesus did while He was hung on the cross, as his final breath were numbered...Jesus uttered these words while struggling to catch His breath..
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" Luke 23:34.
Do you think you will even utter those words when we are in Jesus' shoes? I don't think so. I think we will be wishing in our thought that all of those who had done this to me will pay pay pay!! But, hey, that's not what Jesus did. He prayed for them, begging His Father in Heaven to forgive them. Knowing full well our human nature, Jesus still chose forgave them.
Sacrificial love. Love sacrificially.
Jesus told us to love people just like He Himself loved us. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" John 13:34. We learned that a couple of days ago ya? Now, sacrificial love. It costs you. Take for example, Jesus. For us, for our sake, for our salvation, He paid it with His life. Now, reiterating on what the bible say "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" John 13:34. We were commanded to do so!! but you might say "i'm just nothing, i'm too weak, too shy, too afraid".
Golden rule : "Do for others what you would like them to do for you(Matt 7:12).
So, how do you implement this Golden rule into your life?
1. You need to know that only Jesus can give the power to do what he taught us to do. The Golden rule that he introduced and taught us, he will definitely give us the power to do it. No such thing as He tells us to do something and don't give us the power to do so. It's like telling someone to help us drive our car to some place but you gave his a car with no petrol in it...how on earth will the car ever get to the destination? Jesus had given you the power, He already had. So, what are you waiting for?
2. We've got to make a decision and take the first step. Again, the car analogy. You can never reach a place or a destination, unless you move your legs and feet, and get yourself into that car and drive it. Wow, that's a lot of first steps. Hm..if you're not satisfied with that, take the escalators for example. If you don't take the first step, you will never reach the top!!
The Golden rule is something that we hear quite often but do we ever implement it into our own lives? Sometimes, we do bad to others, and expect them to do good unto us. It might be selfish ambition. We manipulated people for the sake of our own gain. We are humans, we are not perfect, that's why, it's mentioned so so so many times, that we must always depend on God's power. Sacrificial love. God showed us the ultimate example of it when He sent His son to die on the cross. God did it so that we will do it. I'm not saying that He expects us to hang ourselves on the cross, but to take home the message that love is sacrificial.
I know that today's devotion doesn't seem to be long, but , take a look again at the cross, think of what Jesus did for you, and think about His sacrificial love for you.
God bless
jim
HEELLLLLOOOOO!!!!!
We have finally come to the last principle of 40 days of love. Frankly speaking, there's way too much for my brain to absorb and I can almost feel my brain cells dying up there. Like Rachel said in Day 34, loving like Jesus is hard! No, I think it's impossible. But there you have it, that only proves that God was, and is always right. John 15:5 says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." But it also points to Matthew 19:26, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." and Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
Now down to my main point! I remembered an incident not too long ago that happened to (some of us) at Fast Ed's in the city. We were eating peacefully and was suddenly interrupted by a drunk lady that started taking food from our table! As we were leaving the premises after paying, the cashier said something that went like this: "You should have stood up and told her to leave! You know... do unto others what they do unto you." Well I thought about it, and obviously that statement was politically (or biblically) wrong! And I think to myself, how much society has distorted the truth, and some of us were just discussing the topic of perception during saturday morning meetings! The world tells me that's just how it is, and so I just accept it, and go with the flow. The truth is, there are a great many bad people out there, and if you're not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Which side of the fence do you stand?
Are we all inherently selfish then? But let's look at the Big Question for us in this chapter: "How do I get my needs met in this relationship?" And it's true, as unselfish as we may become, we still have needs. And right after that we have the answer: I must give myself to meeting others' needs if I'm to get my needs met!" I know what you're thinking right now. "If I keep giving but no one reciprocates, won't I be losing out?" That is a selfish question my friend!
I just watched Batman - Dark Knight, and man was it a good show! One scene in the movie that really made an impact was the part on the 2 ferries. One ferry was full of convicts, and the other, full of civillians. Both were rigged with explosives, and each ferry was given a detonator for the opposite ferry. Instructions were to blow each other up before midnight, or both blow up! Being human, and selfish, both sides were in an uproar over their survival. It came down to the decision to be made, and the captain of one ferry says: "We're still here. It means they have not pulled the trigger." All it takes is just ONE act of selfishness, just ONE, and there would have been an insurmountable number of casualties. The little selfish actions we execute, have consequences none of us would like to know.
Matthew 7:12 "Do for others what you would like them to do for you." Some of us have heard that rules are made to be broken. But we are too smart to break them. We bend them. Just like law, or claiming your tax returns; there's always some way to squeeze or wiggle our way through. Thank God the bible isn't full of loopholes!
The Reciprocal Rule: "Whatever you do for me, that's what I'll do for you; you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." We do something for someone because we expect something to be done in return. And more often then not, we end up waiting for one another to make the first move. Even when the favour is returned, we get disappointed because it's not we perceived our expectations to be.
Then there is the comparison part. The Ricochet Rule: "Do to someone based on what some other person has done to you." We treat one another based on how we see others treat each other. We give each other "standards" God never intended for us.
Then there is the fine print. The Hidden Motive Rule: "I act like I'm doing it for you, but it's really to get what I want." The ultimate seed of selfishness in the heart!
Let us remember that Love is not selfish. That's it. Let us not wait for one another to act, or compare what we do for each other, or manipulate each other to get what we want. As selfish as we may be, God still believes in us to make the right choices. It's the only reason why we're still here.
Lauzy
HEELLLLLOOOOO!!!!!
We have finally come to the last principle of 40 days of love. Frankly speaking, there's way too much for my brain to absorb and I can almost feel my brain cells dying up there. Like Rachel said in Day 34, loving like Jesus is hard! No, I think it's impossible. But there you have it, that only proves that God was, and is always right. John 15:5 says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." But it also points to Matthew 19:26, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." and Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
Now down to my main point! I remembered an incident not too long ago that happened to (some of us) at Fast Ed's in the city. We were eating peacefully and was suddenly interrupted by a drunk lady that started taking food from our table! As we were leaving the premises after paying, the cashier said something that went like this: "You should have stood up and told her to leave! You know... do unto others what they do unto you." Well I thought about it, and obviously that statement was politically (or biblically) wrong! And I think to myself, how much society has distorted the truth, and some of us were just discussing the topic of perception during saturday morning meetings! The world tells me that's just how it is, and so I just accept it, and go with the flow. The truth is, there are a great many bad people out there, and if you're not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Which side of the fence do you stand?
Are we all inherently selfish then? But let's look at the Big Question for us in this chapter: "How do I get my needs met in this relationship?" And it's true, as unselfish as we may become, we still have needs. And right after that we have the answer: I must give myself to meeting others' needs if I'm to get my needs met!" I know what you're thinking right now. "If I keep giving but no one reciprocates, won't I be losing out?" That is a selfish question my friend!
I just watched Batman - Dark Knight, and man was it a good show! One scene in the movie that really made an impact was the part on the 2 ferries. One ferry was full of convicts, and the other, full of civillians. Both were rigged with explosives, and each ferry was given a detonator for the opposite ferry. Instructions were to blow each other up before midnight, or both blow up! Being human, and selfish, both sides were in an uproar over their survival. It came down to the decision to be made, and the captain of one ferry says: "We're still here. It means they have not pulled the trigger." All it takes is just ONE act of selfishness, just ONE, and there would have been an insurmountable number of casualties. The little selfish actions we execute, have consequences none of us would like to know.
Matthew 7:12 "Do for others what you would like them to do for you." Some of us have heard that rules are made to be broken. But we are too smart to break them. We bend them. Just like law, or claiming your tax returns; there's always some way to squeeze or wiggle our way through. Thank God the bible isn't full of loopholes!
The Reciprocal Rule: "Whatever you do for me, that's what I'll do for you; you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." We do something for someone because we expect something to be done in return. And more often then not, we end up waiting for one another to make the first move. Even when the favour is returned, we get disappointed because it's not we perceived our expectations to be.
Then there is the comparison part. The Ricochet Rule: "Do to someone based on what some other person has done to you." We treat one another based on how we see others treat each other. We give each other "standards" God never intended for us.
Then there is the fine print. The Hidden Motive Rule: "I act like I'm doing it for you, but it's really to get what I want." The ultimate seed of selfishness in the heart!
Let us remember that Love is not selfish. That's it. Let us not wait for one another to act, or compare what we do for each other, or manipulate each other to get what we want. As selfish as we may be, God still believes in us to make the right choices. It's the only reason why we're still here.
Lauzy
