It’s been more than a year since I last swam in the pool. I was in the waters today and I had a hard time trying to find back my form. It seems like such a huge task to swim in a streamlined manner, with all the drag pushing me back. I had no idea why it was such a struggle until I saw an amputee who was swimming beside me.
Common sense tells me that he lacked something that I have, yet he focused on perfecting his strokes, albeit in a lopsided manner. Immediately I know this was a god-sent message, reminding me that I have more than him, yet I’m lamenting at why I’m not doing it right.
This was the revelation – All the body parts need to work together to produce the thrust! I realised I wasn’t working hard on my legs at all, they were just flipping around aimlessly, not working in synergy with my arms. After the correction, the fluid dynamics worked in my favour and all became effortlessly simpler.
I don’t need to explain how this insight is analogous with our spiritual lives. Certain things aren’t working out right because something else is ineffectual. They’re causing unnecessary drag and that’s not very helpful. Find them out and work them out!
Dear sheep, it’s been 2 years! We’ve gone through the same phase of life, ministry, vocation, and care group. We shared a similar vision, burden, hardships and jubilations. I’m honoured to be part of your life. When you move on to the SIM group, there’ll be this void in our care group that may not be filled for a while. That’s how much you are to us. You asked me what’s the plan, I say the plan’s in the man! God’s plan is to use people like you to fulfill his purpose for this whole creation. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (John 15:16) Since God chose you, He whose honour is at stake in your success will bring you through all things to the completion of his plan for you. Keep this in mind wherever you go!
Funny how we end up in the same position in the photos, me on the right, you on the left.
Member’s Appreciation Day
Caroling!
See you around!
Leaders make the greatest hypocrites because of their ability to persuade and deceive. Rarely is there a pastor whose character exceeds his reputation. If I were to ask those closest to you about your relationship with God, what would they say? If I were to ask God the same question, what would He say? If your family, friends, and congregation have better things to say about you than God, it’s because you give them that impression. We do this because we can. God gifted us with an ability to communicate. Too often we use this ability not to convey who we are, but who we want others to think we are.
Francis Chan
Now this kind of hit me hard.
If you’re reading this from google reader, you won’t notice the huge banner I’ve created on the side bar of my wordpress. It points to the 3rd Lausanne Congress held in Cape Town this year. I really believe in the missiological cause that it is trying to serve, especially in the rapidly evolving landscape of the world. That is also what I cherish about our Hope Movement, the scale of the vision it is leading, the passionate drive to become God’s hands and feet, bringing enduring hope to all corners of the earth through the local church.
The size of our vision corresponds to the size of our faith, which commensurates with how big we perceive the story of redemption in the Bible to be. It is recently that I hit home on the immense work that God has in His plan to redeem His children, through a thorough reading of the book of Isaiah. How a king descended from David will reign in righteousness, the messianic promises of judgment, deliverance and salvation. Really, a thorough understanding of the Word of God will blow your mind away. You’ll realise how puny the size of your faith has been, yet Jesus said that nothing is impossible for those who have faith as small as a mustard seed. For this apprehension does not point us to work out more faith, which is futile, but it points us back to Jesus, our all-sufficient Lord. Just how big is our God, really? This question does not beg any answer.
That being said, I like to remind myself of a favourite quote from Pastor Ben, “Think Global, Act Local”. I want to invest my time in building what I’ve been called to build, reaching out to where I’m positioned to reach, impacting who I’ve been entrusted to lead.
If there’s a way to describe where I am leading us in the midst of this journey, I think our ship has beached. We’re in the midst of trying to find food, clueless that we’re shipwrecked, and we have no way of progressing unless we do something.
Which leads me to my next point. How do we repair the ship?
- I just want to thank all for the wonderful week of birthday celebration! It started out on Wednesday with the ministry descending upon me with a chocolate sponge cake, to my care group challenging me with 21 tasks on Thursday, to a delightful family lunch at Lao Beijing, and the CLM Harry Potter trail today. I know I am deeply loved.
- I think being in the center of attention makes it even harder for me to share, especially when all the questions are directed at you, with nothing as basis, coupled with the fact that there are questions that I’ve really no answer to. I think a more accurate picture of me is that I know little about myself, and that is something I seriously should start to salvage.
Luke 14:26
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
- With this I wonder, why is it necessary for Jesus to set up this barrier between man and his natural life? Why are we called to break with our past – family, friends, our lives? Why is this something that a disciple of Christ must fulfill?
By virtue of his incarnation he has come between man and his natural life. There can be no turning back, for Christ bars the way. By calling us he has cut us off from all immediacy with the things of this world. He wants to be the centre, through him alone all things shall come to pass. He stands between us and God, and for that very reason he stands between us and all other men and things. He is the Mediator, not only between God and man, but between man and man, between man and reality.
The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Looking upon the cross we see the distinction of this new life. By His blood we now have salvation and the assurance of faith. Death has ceased to bind us. This is the first physical precept of the natural life that is abolished by Jesus.
- This is also how we then reconcile leaving the natural life and living in the world, operating in its environment. When we deny ourselves, we invite Jesus to be the Mediator of our lives. The Mediator stands in the center of all things. He is the connection between the past, present and future. He is the purpose for all relationships, for whose sake we give all glory. We pray our prayers in His name.
- Now I know, Christ-centeredness is no longer a distant dream but a closer reality.
