Monday, February 23, 2009

Food for Thought

"Use every letter you write, every conversation you have, every meeting you attend, to express your fundamental beliefs and dreams. Affirm to others the vision of the world you want. You are a free, immensely powerful source of life and goodness. Affirm it. Spread it. Radiate it. Think day and night about it and you will see a miracle happen: the greatness of our own life." --Robert Muller

Came across this quote, just some food for thought....
Are we revealing our beloved Jesus Christ in every letter we write, every conversation we have, every meeting we attend? Have we affirm, spread and radiate the gospel through our lives? Are we ever acknowledging God's presence in our lives everyday??
If like what Robert Muller stated, that miracles will take place...
WHAO!!! We are a mighty tool made by God...

Emma

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Transforming Nation; Glorifying God

"What do you envision the world will be like in the last day- when the Lord comes as a judge?" Paul asked. In groups of four we used our own imagination and incorporate with the scenes mentioned in Revelation to craft our own ‘LAST DAY’. These are our masterpieces:






Transforming Nations; Glorifying God
Rev 7:9-12

Introduction
Mission is not the ultimate goal of church. The glory of God is.
Some say mission exists and worship doesn’t? What does it mean?
Mission sometimes is like an organization goal (church) which emphasize on the number of people and lack of element of worship.
However if we don’t have mission, the body of God can’t grow even though we worship.
True worshipper will understand the true meaning of God’s mission.



Discussion
1) World mission- Rev 7:9 states mission is for every nation, every tongue and every tribe.
2) Goal of mission-Rev 7:2 says it is to give God glory
3) Practical steps to take: Build and invest in relationship with people around us, with genuine and sincerity despite they accept the Lord or not. It is also important that we do post-salvation follow-up (discipleship)
4) Matthew 28: 19-20 The great commission – pray and persevere in sowing seeds, personal conduct (testimony), also can let people know that we are constantly relying on God for His strength and grace.
5) Reminder: 1 Cor 1: 27-31 This verse serve as a reminder that it is all because of Him that we are in Christ Jesus, not because of our own strength

Rachel

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Worship – Empowering Your Personal Growth

Worship has to do with who God is, and the book of Revelation is not just a road map of the end times,

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

In reply to Susan

I thought Susan's blog entry was really interesting! And although I know nothing about tennis, I think that her thoughts and the way she related it to prayer is something we can all relate to. And incidentally, when Pastor George Westlake came to preach, he spoke on prayer and why we should pray at the Friday P&P meeting. So I thought I'll share what I can remember, which probably isn't much, so please add on if you have any thoughts...

George Westlake said that we should not be afraid to ask something from God, because James 4:2 says "You do not have, because you do not ask God." And when we ask something from God, we should not just ask once and think that if we ask more than once, it shows that we do not have faith. Because Matthew 7:7,8 (NLT) says "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."

He also talked about how God has given power to man, that what we bind on Earth would have been bound in Heaven, and what we loose on Earth will have been loosed in Heaven. So he talks about how God chooses to be limited by our prayers, and that God does nothing on Earth but move in action to answer prayers. I am a bit confused about this bit, but his point was about how important prayer is, not only to build ourselves up, but also to accomplish God's will. To me, I guess that we have to pray, prayer does us a whole lot of good, and God instructs us to pray. But is God's will limited by our prayers? I believe He will give us the faith and desire to pray in order to fulfil His will.

And just to add something I just read, prayer can be about asking God for something, to thank Him for what He has done, to praise Him and adore Him for who He is, to confess our sins, and to complain to God. Yes we can even complain to God.

-Sarah

Monday, February 2, 2009

Thoughts about prayers from watching tennis grand slam

To ROR: Hey there, this is rather random, and if you guys think it’s not too appropriate, can pull it down the blog, or just give comments on it. Haha.

1 Feb 2009, Australian Open Grand Final – Rafael Nadal (1) vs Roger Federer (2)

Thought #1: When I pray, I expect God to answer my prayers according to what I want and to see instant results, but God sees the big picture and has set further sights. 2nd set in the game, Fed was up 2-1 in the set, having lost the first set 5-7, so I started praying that God will continue to let Fed to win. But Nadal went on to win the next two game and the score became 3-2 in his favour. I was devastated. Come on God, you can’t do this, he was still winning before I started to pray! Disappointed and tired, I fell into a nap while bargaining and somewhat blaming God. When I woke from my slumber, Fed was up 6-3 and won the second set!! Woohooo. Thing is, I didn’t get to see Fed’s action in his winning set, because I expected God to respond immediately when I prayed, I thought if he didn’t win that point in that game, he was going to lose it completely. How often in our prayer life do we stop trusting God to know better, because he didn’t give in to our requests now, it doesn’t mean He’s not in control.

Thought #2: Pray together. You draw strength and prayers get reinforced when you pray with someone. I refreshed myself and though still seated on the edge, I went online and was so comforted to see my tennis kaki online. She’s not in Singapore, so we don’t call each other often, but she was on skype, and been watching the match since it started too! This is an extract of our conversation:

Friend: what.. did you see that
???
Me: unforced error.
that previous match.. all that deuce just made me scared
Friend: lolz
Me: nadal is so fit..
Friend: yeah. .. heart attack.
Me: argghh
Friend: my knees went weak
YESSSS
hahaha
Me: i think i'm learning a lesson in prayers and faith while watching this!!!!
it can prob fill a blog entry
Friend: lolzz
you know
you know i was thinking
I know our God's arm is not shortened
but i kept pondering if it's the right way to pray and ask God to make a person win in a game
Me: you know.. i had the SAME thought!
i was like.. 'god, i know this sounds ridiculous, but do you think you can let him win'
Friend: and then i decided to pray (IN SPITE of my support for the swiss)
that God, let the HUMBLE man win
Me: HAHAHAHA
Friend: so well, we'll see who's the humble one
Me: after that i went, 'god, you already know who will win, if it's your will, pls let him win!'
wahahahahaha
Friend: YESSS
meanwhile
the Holy Spirit knows who we're supporting
hahahha


That isn’t exactly biblical at all. But you see our struggles. I had greater confidence God heard our prayer, although I didn’t know what results He had planned.


Thought #3: I wondered, if I’ve already prayed once, and God has heard me, then do I have to pray again? If I do, does it mean that my faith is not big enough? I don’t have a ready answer for this. There are TYS answers to this, much as I hate to admit, I don’t always comprehend them. But I do believe being persistent in our prayers is an important aspect of a Christian’s life (Parable of the Persistent Widow Luke 18: 1-8). In faith I pray, yet there’s sometimes a nagging bubble in my head still asking ‘so God what’s going to happen’, an obvious display of lack of faith.

Thought #4: If I knew the ending from the start, would I have prayed as hard? In earlier matches that I was unable to catch live cause I’m at work, I always recorded the matches and will play back when I’m home. But the excitement is watered down since I already know the final results. Then I thought, but if I drew a parallel and knowing that Jesus had won and the work is ‘finished’ when he paid with his life on the cross for my sins, then why do we have to pray so hard? I don’t remember the theology or the sermon pointers on why it’s important to pray (although I did google it and found some resources to remind me later). But personally, in prayers I have found comfort and strength especially when I’m going through tough times. In prayers, I’ve had joy and peace of mind when struggling with decision. In prayers, I’ve found a connection to a big God who cares for the little me. In prayer, I’ve talked to God and He hears me. Whether it’s in praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication or intercessory, the hallmark of a Christian life is his relentless prayer to a God who listens.

And, today, although it’s been a ridiculous prayer journey in support of a tennis sportsman, I’m glad I did pray this hard.

-Susan-

'You can't go through your whole life regretting matches you almost win.' -Roger Federer-