Things to Pray about (II)

Youth Outreach

4 "paikias"

1 intellectual guy

1 helper

Raising up leaders for the next generation~

Agape.

People to pray about...

Under Construction:

CARE Ministry~~

Caring

Always

Remembering

Everyone..

sharon(wrong path)

huijun (unstable)

and shina(nana)

Some announcements

1. Christmas Day is BAPTISM cum Party! Meet at Dan's house @ 12 noon to help prepare the food and to prepare the place :)

2. 1st week of Jan is an IMPORTANT day-- it's "Vision Casting" cum Thanksgiving. We will be coming to review what the Lord had revealed to us about 2009, what has been fulfilled and what hasn't; just a very heart-to-heart talk about what we did well and what mistakes were made; and then we will be giving time for anyone and everyone to just give thanks to God for 2009. Finally, we will follow that with what the Lord has revealed about 2010. An important day, do reserve it on your diaries! 3rd Jan 2010. :)

3. This coming Sun, movie outing conducted by Ivan! Check with him for further details. Msg me to get his number. I think I will be free from 9.30. :P Anyone else game to meet at that time?

Here's wishing all the people reading the blog a Blessed Christmas and Happy Holidays (what's remaining of it!)

An article by Valerie Oon

my little box of beliefs.

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Today at 2:24am

When you say you can’t reconcile Christianity with Libertarianism, it’s really because we have myopically understood Christianity in its fleshly, flawed doctrinal way. I still don’t agree with church per se, the church as most of us know it, and as most atheists judge Christianity upon. I don’t agree with churches who judge by worldly standards, driven by religiosity and run by institutional systems. Even more so, I disagree with churches who are insincere and extravagant in the things that do not serve God’s purposes.

Ever since I’ve come to stake my belief in Jesus, I’ve struggled with this belief and my personal philosophies. I was (maybe still am) the girl who came before God with a big box filled with the products of my experience, hitherto, my worldview and everything I’ve thought through–my intellectual understanding of this world. And this box, I’ve held on so tightly to, even as He quietly took each step to meet me where I stand. In fact, the closer He came, the tighter my grip got. Until there was no way He could come any closer.

I didn’t know I still had this box. I thought…I had let it go when I made that decision to respond. But I hadn’t.

But as I’ve been told, so good is our God that even as He requests for my grip to loosen so that I could finally put the box down, He did not let my box fall to the ground. All He wanted was my willing surrender, not for my will to be beaten. I understand today, that with each time I slowly loosen my grip, I will see that His own hands are there, steadying my box of beliefs.

I believe in Libertarianism. For some time, it has been an either/or choice for me. But just now, kneeling before God, it became clear to me that believing in Jesus may not necessarily mean I cannot be a Libertarian.

If we can all agree that the ultimate goal of our Christian walk is to become like Jesus, Libertarianism is really not so contradictory to Christianity. God Himself emphasized freedom more than any of us can, in fact, handle. Atheists scoff at our naivete. How can we possibly be free in the endless requirements of God? Only think of the ten commandments. It is true that God has high standards. So high that it is unthinkable we can ever reach them. But God’s grace is bigger than that. He doesn’t demand that we become good, by His standard of good, overnight. In fact, He doesn’t even expect us to accomplish that by our own efforts. When we speak of God’s forgiveness, what we really talk about is the enlightened way He regards us. God looks straight into our hearts, He judges solely by the purity of our hearts, and based on that, dismisses our fleshly wrongs. Who in the world will judge us this way?

When the adulteress woman was brought before Jesus, even as the people were accusing her and egging him on to judge her, Jesus only said, “Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.” (John 8:7)

In a world that is quick to judge, quick to criticize and slow to forgive, Jesus stood by the Godly path and firmly resisted doing what the world deems as the correct method.

In this same non-judging way, Jesus forgives the times we deny Him and ignore His advice. Even when we, by our imperfections, make bad decisions that cause ourselves grief, God never forces His will on us. Even more amazingly, He is slow to rebuke us.

Jesus, in His time, rebelled against the institution of the pharisees. He loved all Man–women, the poor and the servants. He challenged authority and stood up for what was right. He respected humanity, never despised, never judged, never harmed others and never held grudges. Truly, He was a revolutionary is His time. Isn’t that the perfect description of a Libertarian?

Jesus, if He were here today, would probably have been welcomed at underground parties and book clubs alike, but maybe not so popular among people who sneer at others behind their religious posturing. He would have stood up against the self-righteous and defended the weak. Jesus would have enjoyed debates with atheists (“Come! Let us reason.”) and rebuked those who falsely prophesy in the name of God (like how He overturned tables and shouted at the peddlers in the House of His Father). Jesus would be kind, gentle and accommodating, but He would be no pushover. (He who kneels before God can stand before man.)

If you’ve heard otherwise, maybe…you don’t know the same Jesus as I do.

Basic Lesson #1: Lifestyle of Repentance (Part 4 and Conclusion)

It's a very common experience that God wants us to repent from something that isn't morally wrong, but rather from something which is accepted to something that is more perfect. (Which also reminds us that repentance has nothing to do with you not being good enough). :) Let me give you two examples of this.

1. Religiosity. In very quick terms, God wants people to repent from religiosity, because it represents man's effort to reach God, and to move towards grace, which is the free gift of God given to all mankind. What's so wrong about putting in effort to reach God? - you may ask. When God first created us, there wasn't a problem--just like God, who puts in effort to create the world, maintain it, and to develop his relationship with his creation, man technically is not wrong in putting in effort to maintain life around him, doing good, and developing relationships with others. In fact, in God's creation plan, Man was to "be fruitful and multiply" (yes, it's fun, but it's also work HAHAHAHHA) and to "dominate the earth and subdue it" (i.e. to make the most of Earth's natural resources, to build cities etc, and to make sure there's a replenishment plan so that nothing runs out or gets extinct). So God does expect people to put in effort into their work: it was his plan all along. And that's also why putting in effort is technically, not sin.

But the problem came with the Fall. With the Fall, man became separated from God, the source of all life. What happened then was that artificial (and Additional) effort had to be put in to maintain the world as is. While previously under God food was plentiful, now Man had to eat food "through the sweat of his brow". God created work, but Man through sin created toil. And the effect of sin is very very profound--it affects all our relationships, our attitudes and knowledge of God, and the way we see the resources on Earth and our meaning of "dominating" the world. Don't want to go into too much detail here, but give you a tidbit about what I'm thinking: God dominates the world and the people within it, but he doesn't crush them or deny them their free will--Man, on the other hand, crushes and dictates wherever he dominates; God created male and female to have pleasant and supportive relationships with each other, but because of sin, males started to dominate their spouses, and wives have some kind of addictive dependency on the ones they fall in love with; God created procreation for fun and further creation, but because of sin, even the act of giving birth is tarnished with so much pain and trauma. Once God as source is separated from Man and his world, there is this tremendous lack, and a whole load of effort is needed to "plug the leak" (which never happens anyway because our strength is so infinitesimally small). And I need to add one additional point: because of the Fall, we began to think we could plug the leak. We don't need God, we said. All we need is us.

So the problem with the Fall is that 1. some things got so irreversibly changed that our human effort is never enough; 2. our human effort is so corrupted by sin that even when we have the noblest of motives, when it is executed, it becomes dictatorial, uncaring, or simply imperfect; 3. in terms of spirituality, (big surprise) God isn't impressed at all with our effort. One sin is more than he can take. Effort doesn't answer the question of taking away sin. Sin is such a terrible virus that can only be taken away by the removal of the life that contains it.

Can you now see why religiosity, although not a 'sin-sin' per se, is definitely not what God has in store for any of us? You can't come outright and say "it is bad"--some of the most caring, conscientious, and responsible people fall within this category; the problem is that it's hard to detect such people because they are the 'most wonderful' people around! But the thing is, God is only pleased with something a lot better than that, something other than external observance. He wants a change that comes from the heart.

In fact, what is appalling is that if anyone thinks religiosity is the way to go, God demonstrates through his Word that it is the surest way to get manipulated by Satan. Satan has a field day manipulating the "zeal" of legalist nuts (e.g. Paul). What led Jesus' enemies to lie, slander, play political games, bribe, and do all kinds of things just to get rid of Jesus? Answer: religiosity. This is the hidden trap that is so lethal precisely because it's so unnoticeable. And yet, the Pharisees were consistently morally right in most things they did, if you think carefully. The Pharisees were absolute keepers of the law and ultimate scholars of the Scriptures. They kept EVERYTHING, man. Compared to them today's church member or even Pastor would feel like an absolute sinner. Notice also that there is no way to criticise them 'cos everything they did was morally 'right'! Which also means usually such people are hardly ever the centre of controversy. They are respectable, fantastic people who keep whatever law you might have. And don't forget that, as far as the people were concerned, they "can't be wrong" because the Law of Moses backs them up.

But let me at this time also show you Jesus so you can understand that the real Christian life can sometimes be marked by controversy. If you let a Pharisee write his 'testimonial', you can be sure Jesus would be labelled as a sinner. He allowed people to eat with unwashed hands (i.e. there's a chance some of them might be ceremoniously unclean and therefore would defile him), he ate at the table of sinners (contradiction to the Psalms), he broke the Sabbath (bad boy, how could you go against the Ten Commandments!), AND he wasn't even a trained scholar, yet he was so 'presumptuous' as to teach. Yet, from God's perspective, it is Jesus who is our hero, and the Pharisees who are the villains. Think that gives us a lot to think about as to what Christian life should really be like.

Let's come back to some definitions. Repentance is letting God change us from the inside out, not just from the bad to the good, but also from the acceptable to the better. And 'better' is not defined by the people outside, but defined by God himself. There are countless people in church today who don't lie, don't smoke, attend church faithfully every Sunday, give their tithes and offerings, speak in tongues, attend cell group, play music for church, etc. And obviously there's nothing wrong with all of this (in fact, it is good that they are doing such things!). That's not what God wants us to repent about. God wants us to check our hearts--if the source of power to get these things done comes from Him. God wants us to check our minds: if these things are done using the framework of the world, the assumptions of organisation, and like in the last post, whether we are having the right motives but using the human, fleshly methods. Some people may never ever have to repent from moral failures. But I'm sure we need to repent, and probably repent often, from the mindset and ways of the world that so easily creep into our churches and into our daily lives. And perhaps the greatest thing to repent about is whenever we think we are capable of 'sweating' out this Christian life using our own fuel, rather than 'sweating out' using the supernatural fuel which is so available to all of us today. :)

I think if we let God be God, the greatest God with all the power in the world, the power even to raise Christ from the dead--and if we allow the Spirit of truth to impart his power and his life-giving Word into us, we will not have a perfect life, but we will have a drastically improving life. We are not undergirded by our 'purity' or perfection, nor will we be easily unsettled by the accusations of non-Christians that we are not perfect enough. I think if we let God be God, we will come to the conclusion, that we were never perfect in the first place, and that's why we need Jesus. There is no difference between us and the non-Christians, except one big difference: Jesus Christ. And he indeed makes ALL the difference. Thanks to him, we have hope and a great faith for the future. Thanks to him, we see ourselves changed in our behaviour, our speech, our actions, and our thoughts. Thanks to him, we develop new spiritual abilities and can tap into the realm of the unseen where true deliverance can take place. And thanks to him, we "no longer see this world from the perspective of a mere human being". We see the unseen: Jesus Christ glorified, Jesus Christ redeeming a very fallen world to himself, and Jesus Christ returning to claim his Bride. And when we see the world, we see with new eyes too: they, and us, honestly have not much difference. All lost, all in need of a Saviour. All facing tremendous pain. But all have a hope and a destiny, no matter how broken we might be (or how much we refuse to admit it). All can turn to Jesus. And He will be your friend and be your closest family forever. If we will let God be God, he is more than capable of doing all this for us.

May we stop striving in our own strength. May we leave aside the ways of the world. May we come to his compassionate heart, and find safety and refuge for our imperfect souls. Because "when Jesus saw the crowds, he saw that they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd". Today, maybe that is you. You know the Lord, you serve him, and yet you feel harassed and helpless, because you can see your flaws all around you, and maybe even this message has reinforced your sense of imperfection. Take heart. Come to Him. He will give you a good rest for your soul. You will strive no more, and yet see yourself "led beside streams of quiet waters", where your soul will be satisfied. Let Him be God, and let you be you. Come to Him today.

Basic Lesson #1: Lifestyle of Repentance (Part 3)

Hi people! I'm finally back to complete this particular series which I felt is a topic that cannot be repeated enough time and again.

Last few weeks have been very humbling for me. One of the things I was reminded about, which is very closely related to this, is got to do with the fact that repentance is necessary, because whether we realise it or not, we live in the world, the world wants to influence us, and many-a-time, the world influences us without us realising it. What is the solution? Having God to influence us more than the world can, and protecting us from the insidious influence of the world. Choosing to let God influence us more than the world can is in fact, repentance.

This doesn't just come from Daniel's mouth. In Romans 12:1, it says "So here's what I want you to do, the Spirit helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you" (The Message, emphasis mine).

You see, whether we realise it or not, the fact we are still in this world, means that "the culture around [us will] always drag [us] down to its level of immaturity". What kind of immaturity, or "ways of the world" (NIV) is this? Besides the obvious bad influences like bad language, hypocrisy, and playing power games, I found the other side to be equally as sneaky and harmful--legalism, placing 'purity' over people, being scared of losing control (because things could go wrong), and trying to manipulate situations (even for good and desirable results). I believe the people who do the latter do so out of good reasons--they are trying to cope with this imperfect world of ours, and trying to make lemonade out of lemons, so to speak. Learning how to 'manage' people, in a way that minimises conflict. All that is actually not too bad, when you think about it. But one reason why the Lord convicted me about it, is because at the end of the day, it is still relying on a lot of fleshly, human methods to get the job done, rather than letting "God bring the best out of [everyone]" and "chang[ing] them from the inside out"; instead of letting us "fix our attention on God", it fixes our attention on methods and the right ways of getting things done. Don't misunderstand: it's the right motives--trying to get people to behave in an honourable way, trying to get good stuff done that is beneficial to all--but really the wrong strength and wrong 'method', so to speak. What God said in Romans 12 speaks readily to us all (and definitely me!): don't "fit into our culture without even thinking". (Man, that's so hard. Sometimes I even do their methods without even realising it!) Instead, "fix your attention upon God...recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it".

Our change will come from the inside out. And at the end of the day, the world will realise they can never produce this kind of purity, this kind of Godliness, this kind of love for God, this kind of joy, and this kind of behaviour. That's because our change comes from the inside out, not the outside in.

Freedom Post/Sharing

Hi guys,

Just wanna say a big congrats to the whole church for making past 1000 views in the last few months or so! Hahahahhaha. Although we can't say 1000 people have been blessed, but at least we can say that God has been using us to encourage people from different walks of life, and a lot more people, for that matter, than the 6-12 people we have in our church. Praise God. Keep the comments and questions coming, errrrr....please comment (remember: nothing is too small to be commented about, and you don't have to wait for the 'correct people' to give the 'correct answer'--all of us have a part to play to spur one another towards a greater understanding of God), and yes, feel free not to make this a too serious church blog: scriptural jokes (no matter how lame or irreverent they are), games, reflections on your life etc are all welcome. So long it's not blasphemous, so long it's an honest reflection of who you are, it is most welcome.

Oh and yes, non-Outreachers are most welcome to leave your comments too. If you feel there's something to bless the church, leave it in a comment (even if it's unrelated), and when the leaders take a look at it, if it's really that good we can post it up for you and let the members know you made a contribution to the church. :)

Since we are talking about certain admin matters--just wanna encourage the folks in our church to continue giving to the Lord~ As usual, the problem is not that we don't give, but the leaders (ooops) usually forget to bring the offering bag. Bad, bad, bad. So will appreciate it when you all remind us to bring and to give to the Lord. 2 urgent matters on the plate: giving to the poor, and giving in terms of administration--the church will be holding prophetic services soon and we need to use a place slightly more conducive, i.e. we will need to pay some rent. So time for us to start giving to the Lord, and to really enjoy the pleasure of giving the way the Lord wants us to. And I trust that even in this small mundane thing, you will experience the joy of the Lord and a deepening of your walk with God. Leave you with a famous quote: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Famous person? Jesus. :D

As I end this note, my mind is reminded of freedom--"now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom". I end this note with a blessing--may our church continue to be a place where the Spirit of God has freedom to do whatever he wants; where people are free to express themselves to God; where our holiness and actions stem from freedom rather than pressure; and where the bound, heavy laden, hurting all come--to receive freedom. May all of you in our church and beyond continue to experience the "year of the Lord's favour"! Amen!

Agape,

Dan

I Hate Children, but...

I hate children, but this article is simply too good not to put up here...

http://faithandleadership.com/blog/10-05-2009/jason-byassee-good-for-nothin-young-uns

Letter from Chris

Well, well...it's Monday afternoon here in the UK, and I am typing this in the University of Warwick library while waiting to see my course director in an hour and a half's time.

Well, one week has passed since I have arrived in Warwick. It's been a flurry of paperwork, really...not much of an orientation. So far I've settled everything except my bank account (which is the most important thing of all!) and my UK line. But I think I will settle into campus life well...I've even signed up for a student society already - the Revelation-Rock gospel choir. I have finally realised my dream to be part of a gospel choir: getting in touch with the musical side of my Pentecostal roots! There's also a musical being held by the Singapore Society (SingSoc, in short) here, and my SingSoc buddy has asked me to join. Given how I also want to take German or French while I am here, I don't know if I will end up overloading myself; but we'll see :)

Weather-wise, things are pretty comfy at a nice and cool 10 degrees celsius: a welcome change to the heat in Singapore. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous. When I was teaching in Chung Cheng High School back home, I would frequently hear about their lake (a point of pride for them). HA! Wait till they see the lakes here on campus: they've got ducks of different kinds swimming about, geese, and even swans. On top of that, the sky here has the same shade of blue as that in the opening of The Simpsons, believe it or not. I am also happy to say that, despite the claims of naysayers that there is no sun in England, the sun comes out pretty frequently here.
The food here is also surprisingly decent. Thanks to the influx of Indians and Pakis to the country, you can find Chicken Briyani and Butter Chicken microwave dinners here for just £1. I don't think I've eaten anything distinctively 'Western' for the past few days, except the occasional roast beef and sandwich. Last night, I experienced the hospitality of my Chinese flatmates. I wandered out of my room, down the corridor into the common flat kitchen, and there were three of them cooking. I thought I'd cook after they were done, but then they made my share and insisted that I join in. I am grateful to them, as well as to God, for such small provisions scattered here and there. That event, I think, stood out to me as a show of how God can find creative ways to provide for me.

I also attended my first church service yesterday morning. I went to some mid-autumn festival celebration held by the Christian Union; it turned out to be some evangelistic event, and so I was bored out of my skull. When I stayed behind to help clean up, however, I connected with Willie and John, two really nice guys at the Christian Union. Willie met up with me the next day to bring me to this church called Myton, which is an independent church that is cautious but open to the things of the Spirit - which was comforting to a Pentecostal like me :) It was obviously a family church, and very warm. I kind of liked it.

I am glad for meeting Willie and John at the Christian Union, as well as two Singaporeans from the CU named Adelene and Jasmine, who are very friendly to me. I also met a half-bubbly Malaysian there named Joanna. My original Malaysian acquaintances are all right, but they are, as I said, a bit too loud and tend to talk only about their own things, so an outsider will feel every inch an outsider with them. My introverted personality and awkward social skills do kick in, and so I sometimes wonder whether I will find a good friend or two here; but I think with the Christian Union people and with the Myton church, I might get comfortable to the point where I can really connect with them meaningfully...

In the meantime, I look forward to meeting my fellow English coursemates. I'm particularly looking forward to having a blast of a time with fellow English dweebs, cracking jokes about Shakespeare that no one else will understand, haha.

On a more personal note, I have been getting the sense of how hard and insensitive I am to God nowadays. I guess it didn't help that 2008 was a year in which I was coming out of one of the most painful failures of my life, and 2009 was just too busy for me to recuperate. The teaching at Chung Cheng, with its accompanying emotional drain, just made it worse, haa. While I was walking down the footpath a few days ago, the realisation of how insensitive I was to God, how lackadaisical and jaded I was, hit home with quiet but fresh force. And, as if to confirm what I instinctively felt, I couldn't even think of words to express my inner state to God...awkwardly then, stumblingly then, and quietly, I started praying in tongues. Probably, the Spirit's language is about the only thing that can draw out what my heart needs to say to God right now.

I've still got the questions God challenged me with before I left Singapore running through my head - why are you doing this? why are you going overseas to study? what are your motives? for your own gain and glory, or for my gain and honour? And of course, the words that God keeps saying to me again and again in different ways: you will seek Me and you will find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And knowing that only the Spirit can draw words out from my heart and that only the Spirit can open my self and centre to God, the only way to answer the Lord's questions to me, and to answer His call to seek Him, is to cling ever tightly to the Spirit. Please pray for me that God will continue to relentlessly draw me after Him, and that I will let Him draw me out to where I can never go back, away from self-centredness, away from anger and bitterness, and into His very Self.

Cheers, all! Thanks for all prayers by all of you: they are deeply appreciated at such a juncture in my life. Will email you guys soon!

Basic Lesson #1: Lifestyle of Repentance (Part 2)

One common obstacle to repentance is condemnation, the fact that we feel lousy at not being "good enough". One of the comforting things that I want to share is that repentance is not all about turning away from evil and turning to good. (If you can understand this, this lesson would not have been in vain.) Most of the time, repentance is about turning away from what is acceptable to what is God's most perfect way, turning away from what is good to what is better. (Sidenote: the repentance that involves moral issues is often easy enough to understand and to recognise. So I'll talk about it later.) In other words, sometimes it's got nothing to do with you being good enough or not. It's got to do with being willing to learn. And some of us, understandably, may feel bad at having to learn. Can I reassure you that there's no shame in learning? :) None of us, myself included, ever knew whatever we knew from birth. Someone had to teach us, change our diapers, guide us in the ways of life, teach us even the language we use(!). And most of us have spent at least a good 12 years of our lives learning intensely before having some kind of stability to handle life as an individual. If this is true of earthly issues, what more of spiritual issues? If this is true so that we can live on earth a measly 70 years, what more of the spiritual education that is meant to last us until eternity? :) God is a great master teacher. You remember the best teacher you ever had? The one who wouldn't give up on you, the one who always believed in you, the one who would make complicated stuff seem simple by explaining it in such a concise way, the one who demonstrated how to throw the ball, saw the wood, and even took you by the hands when you really really could not even start? Our God has all these attributes and more. He will never despise your learning, i.e. your repenting. Just repent, i.e. be willing to change your mind and heart.

What about moral issues? As Romans 8:1-2 says, "Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death." Now this is the solution to all feelings of condemnation! Firstly, it means we are truly and bluely not under condemnation (despite whatever our feelings may tell us). :) Believe His word! Secondly, there finally is a solution to our lifelong problem with sin and addiction. Take note of what the Word of God says: "Through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death". You see, if all we had was "we are not under condemnation", we'll just ignore our feelings of guilt. But I trust you identify with me when I say "you can't run from it forever". Right? Somehow, or the other, our sense of fallenness catches up with us, and it can be very demoralising. Point 2 here is very very useful. What will set us free from the power of sin? The Spirit of life. Did you realise that "the law of sin" here is referring to the power that sin has over our lives, not an actual law? So what's the law of the Spirit of life? Not another set of principles and rules to follow follow follow, but the power and control of the Holy Spirit over our lives. In other words, in the same way that sin and death used to control us and dictate our lives to the extent that we treat it as a given fact of life, the Holy Spirit is able to control us and dictate our lives in a way that is completely counter-cultural and counter-worldly. And in the same way that sin 'naturally' exerts power over our lives, without us having to psych ourselves to do sin, the Holy Spirit, as God himself, will exert his power over our lives, setting us miraculously free, if we will let him do so. Holiness will not be a psych-ing thing anymore. It will stem supernaturally, from the Holy Ghost.

Some people say, "That hasn't happened for me!" Time for point 3: notice the words "has set me free"? That's the kind of certainty the Word of God promises us about our victory. It's not whether it will happen. But that it will surely happen. It's so certain that the best way to express it is to use the past tense. For as surely as Jesus has died for us and has cleansed us with his blood, so is it equally as certain that he has set us free, and that in specific, unpredictable moments in our life, we will see the realisation of this holiness which he has already provided for us.

In short form, take heart! God is at work in your life. Nothing you can do, but if you trust Him, he will make a miracle of your life. And you will see it!

Basic Lesson #1: Lifestyle of Repentance

Before going into today's topic, this title in itself demands a question: what exactly is repentance? And why is it so crucial to our daily lives? (And for those of us reading this, I bet there are other statements in our minds as we read this: "this is oh-so-sunday-school"; "I've been a Christian for umpteen years and yes I know all about repentance"; "repentance is saying sorry to God LOR".)

So I guess I should start by stating what repentance is not: Repentance is not saying sorry to God; repentance is not turning away from sin; repentance is not beating your chest and wearing sackcloth to 'prove' to God you have truly "repented". Repentance has all these things within it--but repentance is a lot more than all these things. It's not that the above statements are wrong: it's just that they understate the case by too much.

Some people agree when I say the above, but let me say something even more controversial. Repentance is not just about the moral life. It's not just about what's right, and what's wrong. Repentance extends to the whole of our being and the whole of our Christian existence.

So this is a good time for me to answer the question: what exactly is repentance?

Repentance is a change of mind and of heart. Why is this change necessary? Because of the Fall--when sin entered the world, it separated us from God, instilled in us habits and behaviours far removed from God, and enslaved us into thinking, feeling, and behaving its way. Now 'sin' is more than just a moral term. It is the entire pollution that results from being separated from God. Besides the moral side, sin also involves the corrupt world system that is in power, the addictiveness to certain things (that society deems acceptable), the self-reliance (that we needed in order to survive in a highly imperfect world), self-centredness (the idea that *I* choose what I want for my life and my way is always correct), and our value system: what we think is important, what we deem as success and failure, what deserves more attention than other matters. It also extends to our reliance on formulas: our tendency not to relate to God as a person, or as a friend or Father, but as a supernatural being/force we can bend to our will; that somehow, if we do the correct formulas, pray the correct prayer, make the correct sacrifices and rituals, then God (has no choice but to) bless us, provide for us, anoint us, etc. It also extends to our reluctance to be in touch with the supernaturality of God. We end up preferring the human form of existence (only), fallen and as imperfect as it may be. We would rather God keep his supernaturality for himself. Even when we believe in God, we'd rather he stay as a belief, than as an intrusion into our lives. Because even an intrusion from a loving God is too much for us to take, too freaky for a mind that has been too used to not seeing the supernatural. That is the current state of humanity. We're all the same, all in need of repentance. :) Why are we like this? The Fall. The Fall, that separated us from a good, loving, supernatural, and morally upright God.

Repentance is a total change of mind and heart. It is viewing success from God's point of view. It is viewing honour and power the way he views it. It also involves moving away from fleshly methods of doing things to following the Spirit--in other words, moving from the very human formulas and a rigid kind of relation to God to a dynamic, fluid expression of Biblical principles and a constant following of the Spirit's voice. It is not just a 'different' way of doing things; it is the total opposite from what we are used to. (And of course, with all the above, comes one of the results, which is living life the way God wants us to, in contrast to worldly, evil ways of living life.) I don't know about you, but I think for most of us, the fact that we are living in this world, which operates on its own principles, makes living God's way a really difficult and quite unbelievable way to live.

Thankfully, that's not the last thing that should be said about it, otherwise that would be really terrible terrible news for all of us. In fact, repentance is a fantastic piece of good news. It can be considered THE greatest gift that God has given us (besides the obviously most important one which is His Son). And is it livable and realistic? The answer also is yes. Provided we do it the proper way.

What then is the proper way? Let me explain the one, and only formula for living the Christian life. It is to "follow the Spirit" (check out the books of Romans, Galatians, and even the Ephesians passage that begins with "not to be drunk with wine"). That's it. There is only one formula for pleasing God, one formula for understanding Christian life, and one formula for living the victorious Christian life. Follow the Spirit. Notice that I didn't say follow the Spirit's power: I said follow the Spirit. If you follow Him personally, you will get there.

Translated into today's topic, it also means this: to achieve true repentance, i.e. transformation of heart and mind into what God wants, follow the Spirit. Let me show in a practical way how this can be done.

When praying, 1) invite the Spirit of Jesus to come and speak to you, to sensitise your heart if you haven't done so already so that you can hear his voice. This step alone can take a short or long time, so be patient if you've just started. Trust me, just praying this prayer alone, to hear His voice, so that you can love Him and obey--this is a very very pleasing prayer to Him (John 10:27). 2) He will probably tell you some things that need to be changed. Some of them will be sins, some of them will be mindsets, some of them will be addictions, some of them will be attitudes towards self, world and God, and some of them will involve increasing your level of faith. If it's sin, say sorry. If it's mindsets, I've always found it useful to rebuke the mindset in the name of Jesus (sounds quite silly, because it feels like talking to yourself, ahhaha, but it works!) and to read Scripture passages that deal with the mindset. If it's addiction, too complicated to go into detail here, but get someone who specialises in deliverance to help. :) And finally, if it's a lack of faith you are repenting from, find people of faith to mix with. God will use these people to guide you how to have more and more faith.

3) Don't nitpick. This is not the time to get all sorry for yourself about ALL your weaknesses and to go headhunting for some unconfessed sin that you haven't got out of your system. No. Stick with the Spirit's agenda. Let him decide what needs to be changed. Let him deal with the rest of your imperfections some other time. And for the benefit of those not familiar, the Spirit doesn't always have to communicate to you supernaturally. If you find yourself going through the same scenario over and over again, either always having to forgive someone, or having to deal with ostracism, or etc etc, and it keeps coming back like deja vu, then I can tell you that the Spirit's orchestrating your circumstances purposely to teach you something. And learning that lesson = repentance.

4) Be prepared to repent again. Let me explain. God is usually more concerned about the things that can't so easily be changed than all the small things. Any known sin, when known, should be confessed--but like a master builder, God really deals with core issues of the heart first, because these are the deepest cracks and the biggest stumbling blocks to your SUCCESS (i.e. spiritual maturity) in him. So there's a good reason why he didn't deal with your egocentrism, insecurity, pride, laziness, spiritual insensitivity, fear, disobedience, wilfulness, lack of self-control, lust, lack of perseverance, anger management problem, spiritual ignorance and religiosity (!) all at once, because as the list suggests, it's too much for anyone to bear. It's like being in surgery and trying to operate on the brain, heart, lungs, kidney, and legs ALL at once. You'd die halfway thru surgery! Trust the Lord, deal with the issue that he wants you to deal with, and you will be a healthier, stronger individual at the end of your 'surgery'. And you will find that these core issues usually don't clear off so fast. They usually need years and months of work to clear. So, just stay the course, be committed to repentance, and you will see fruit the moment the power of the Lord invades your life. In short, be prepared to repent, about the same sin, or about the same addiction, or about the same mental habit, again. And remember the Lord is very generous and doesn't despise your need to continually repent.

(to be continued)

The Anointing Upon and Within

P.S. What do you people think about this article? Feel free to comment :)

The Anointing Upon and Within

by Steven Brooks

We see clearly in Scripture that the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Jesus during His earthly ministry. Isaiah the prophet speaks of the seven manifestations of the Holy Spirit that would rest upon the Lord. “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD (Isaiah 11:2).” There are not seven Holy Spirit’s. There is only one Holy Spirit, yet He is displayed through these seven manifestations which rested upon Jesus. The Spirit of God can also rest upon the believer in order to anoint that person to function in their assigned calling. The anointing upon a person can be increased through obedience to God and time spent in the Word and prayer.

In Luke the fourth chapter we read of the time when Jesus went and preached in the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth. Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah and he deliberately found and read the text of Scripture which we identify as Isaiah 61:1, and the first part of verse 2. Jesus read to the people, saying, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me.” This famous portion of Scripture was prophetically speaking of the coming Messiah. After reading those verses He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The story in Luke tells us that all the eyes of the people in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

When reading this story we can’t help but be curious as to why the people’s eyes were fixed on Him. When you study Jewish customs and traditions, you find an interesting practice that took place in Jesus’ day, and can still be observed in some synagogues today. The Jews reserve a special seat in their synagogues which is kept for the appearance of the Messiah. That special chair always remains empty and no one ever sits in it. Well, after Jesus finished speaking He sat down! He actually sat in that reserved chair and it caught all the attention of those in attendance. Jesus spoke to those in the synagogue and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He basically told them, “That Scripture is talking about Me.” Jesus knew He was the Anointed One.

The anointing that is upon you is for service. God anoints you with His Spirit to empower you to do the work He has called you to do. For example, the Lord has placed an anointing upon my life for miracles of healing. This gift, which is a special anointing He gave to me, has taken me around the world in the work of the ministry. When that anointing comes upon me and others release their faith to receive that anointing the results are always the same miracles! I’ve seen it happen in America and all over the world with creative miracles occurring and all types of diseases healed. Just as there is an anointing upon, there is also an anointing within. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things (1 John 2:20).” “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him (1 John 2:27).”

Notice we are told where the anointing abides. “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you.” The anointing is within us. This anointing teaches us concerning all things. Some have taken this scripture out of context and misuse it to imply that we do not need instructors or teachers. However, Jesus is the head of the church and He established the five ministry offices as gifts to the church. The ministry office of the teacher is one of the five offices mentioned in Ephesians the fourth chapter. So, we need teachers. To reject the biblical ministry of the teacher is to reject a precious gift from God.

The anointing within you is for guidance and protection. It teaches you what is from God and what is not. “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you (1 John 2:26).” The anointing within you protects you from deception, just as a virus software program protects your computer from malicious infections. When corrupt teaching is presented the anointing within you goes off on the inside of you like an alarm. The anointing says, “Watch out, something is not right there!” When something is wrong you have an uneasy feeling on the inside. When something is right you should have a peaceful, velvety smooth feeling on the inside.

The anointing within helps you to know all things. The more sensitive a person becomes to the anointing within, the more success they will have in making the right decisions in life. We should use our brain and utilize the best of our mental abilities. However, the anointing resides within your spirit, not within your physical brain. Yes, the anointing of God certainly affects the brain which influences us to think godly thoughts. But some decisions we have to make in life go beyond the ability of one’s brain to solve. Who to marry? Where to work? Where to go to church? What color should I paint the house? The answer to these types of questions should be measured through the anointing that resides within us.

Other questions such as, “Was that prophecy that person gave me from God, or not?” or, “How do I know if God has called me to the ministry?” The Holy Spirit will guide us through the anointing that God has placed within us. There’s no need to be in the dark when it comes to knowing God’s will and purpose. Let the anointing within you help settle the perplexing questions and choices you face. You can always trust the anointing of the Holy Spirit that abides within you to point you in the right direction.

The better developed you become to recognizing the inward anointing, the greater will be your ability to carry the glory of God. Understand that the anointing within you is what supports the potential anointing that can rest upon you. For example, some ministers have had a strong anointing upon them. This anointing initially came through God’s grace in which He bestowed spiritual gifts through His own choice. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). These spiritual gifts were received by men and women through an act of God’s grace. But some individuals have had failures, with some falling from ministry and never fully recovering. How does a tragedy like this happen?

The reason a spiritual collapse takes place is because the inward anointing comprised of biblical morals, holy character, humility, and other spiritual attributes was deficient in that person’s life. The inward anointing was not valued or developed, so such an individual could not support the weight of the anointing of God that is able to come upon a person. We see this clearly in the life of Samson. What a mighty anointing that he had that would come upon him! The nation of Israel had never seen anything like it before. But we all know the unfortunate outcome of his life. Its how we finish that’s important, not necessarily how we start out.

It is up to us to train ourselves to be diligent and instantly obedient to following the inward anointing. By doing so we will partake of the fruits of obedience which God richly brings forth. May the Lord bless you as you walk in His anointing which is upon you, and within you.

Richest Blessings,
Steven Brooks

A great message

Here's a pastor I respect a lot: one of the few people who move in the great power of God, and manage to stay stable. :) And this is a rare clip of him ministering! Enjoy!

Watch RHB here :)

Huilian's Testimony (dated 4 Aug 09): The Spirit confirms His prophetic direction

Elder's Note: Apologies to Huilian for being SO late!! Hope you've received the invitation to be an author and you can post here next time!

----------
Yesterday at (a certain) church, I was suddenly prompted to pass a message to a pastor. So I wrote down the message on a piece of paper, saying that he is a leader and will experience the goodness of the Lord--the Lord wants to pour forth His revelation of the word onto the pastor.

Then today, brother Tim messaged me this: "Yesterday Pastor said your note to him was exactly what another pastor prophesied to him. Praise the Lord. GB Tim."

The lesson I learnt: if the Lord has a piece of instruction that he wants to give to a person, He will definitely confirm that it is authentic through 2 or more witnesses.

A few important articles which may interest you

For those of you new to the church blog:

1. Val's testimony:
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/07/28th-july-2009.html
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/07/statement-i-find-so-impactful-i-had-to.html
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/07/from-valerie-jayne-oon-god-answers.html

2. The Love of God
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/07/meditations-on-love-of-god.html

3. Funky articles to check out
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/07/interesting-post-by-ken-schenck.html
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/06/funky-url-to-check-out.html
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/06/check-this-out-interview-with-cnn.html

4. Testimonies of God's Miraculous Presence
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/06/reminder-of-lord-for-us-on-160609.html
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-heard-angels-singing.html
http://theoutreachsingapore.blogspot.com/2009/09/bi-class-on-4th-sept-09.html

5. Article with an important section on the Holy Ghost
Make yourself at home! Welcome!

Interesting Book!

Hey guys,

Just came across this book review on Ken Schenck's website...I'm more fascinated by the book than by the review (though I am hearing of this book for the first time through this review). Do check it out:

http://kenschenck.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-sacred-pathways.html

My own testimony: God restored to me a certain kind of prophetic gift

A few months back, before all the ugly hoo-ha started, somehow God gave me the ability to confirm whether a certain instruction was from God or not. This ability involved God manifesting his power in order to say "Yes" or "No" to a specific request. Particularly, it was helpful in terms of making decisions and when needing to know if God was in a certain decision or not; it was also useful especially in an emergency where I didn't have the luxury of praying for a long long time to get an answer to a query.

But a few months ago, I 'lost' that ability. Somehow I would pray, and ask, but nothing would happen, whether Yes or No. And I found it weird that God chose to speak to me in other ways, sometimes even speaking at length about other people's lives, but in terms of my own crucial decision making, I was left all alone to "fend for myself".

Had been very uncomfortable, and so asked myself and the Lord whether anything was wrong. 4 times I was reminded of a particular incident, but brushed it off because supposedly "I was correct".

Just want to thank the Lord for revealing so clearly yesterday. Yesterday Jan asked me to seek the Lord about a particular decision she had to make. I told her I had lost this God-given ability for some time already. Pressed by the situation, I sought the Lord again, and for the fifth time the situation came to mind. I decided to give it a go and repent (partly whether to find out whether despite all my justification, I was still in the wrong). Then the power of God came upon me, and I felt myself being restored. Cannot explain it, but something was healing within me and I felt some kind of rejuvenation--and suddenly today, it was back to good use!

I still have some unanswered questions, but I've decided to let the Lord do the sorting out of those details for me so that I can learn from them. :) Glory to God!

Postscript (14 Sept 09): I quote loosely from Benny Hinn what God was trying to reveal to me about His power--"the main thing I [Hinn] learned was that God only chooses to release his power when I choose to obey. And that is absolutely pivotal. God only chooses to release his power when you step forward in obedience. What do you do with a little that He gives you? Obey, and he increases its amount. Disobey, and God makes it stop". By the way, I had come to a similar conclusion about a week before (on my own), but didn't know how to put it into words (and was not sure if I understood correctly). =) Thank God for this article. And I don't think it's an accident that I came across this article a full 8 days later in my quiet time!

BI class on 4th Sept 09

This testimony comes from my mum:

As Chris, Dan, Huilian and Ivan were praying in tongues in BI class, the door of my bedroom shook as if someone was knocking it. At first I thought Daniel was knocking, so I opened to see what was the matter. Then I realised that no one was there, but they were praying in the Spirit. I found that really really significant. God was present in that meeting.

--Auntie Angela (Dan's Mum)

Quotable quote of the day

Two quotable quotes:

1. "Faith doesn't deny facts, but faith changes facts"--As mentioned by my friend (who probably got it from somewhere too :P).

2. "Not by human strength and ability, not by human authority, power structures or manipulation, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies". (from Scripture, but quotable quote because it forever answers the question of how we can experience this powerful, fulfilling life in Christ; and it also spells out how we as a church can be a really meaningful and successful community).

A song which I find very blessed to share with all of you

Like the woman with the issue of blood
We press in, we press in
Like the blind man waiting patiently
We press in through the crowd

Chorus:
Then SUDDENLY, a touch from heaven
Jesus came and rescued me
Then SUDDENLY, a touch from heaven
Jesus came and set me free

Announcement Sept 1 2009

Hi people,

Blogger seems to have some problems, such that the format is really weird and we can't update some of the settings. We'll be posting when it recovers. In the meantime, keep close to God and have a wonderful time in His Spirit. Keep you all updated once it's ok.

Agape,
Dan

Prayer Request

Hi Guys,

Have a prayer request to ask of you. There is a secondary two girl from Chung Cheng who is seeing the school counsellor because she comes from a family that values boys over girls. She is under great stress because she can score 'A's and top the class, and her family will still scold her for not being good enough; of course, her brother can fail his subjects and get away with it.

I burned with anger when I heard this, partly because I knew that this was an evil that society's justice can never touch. But I also felt greatly moved, because I also knew as I heard it that what this girl really needs is God's love, and the family of God to affirm her worth. I don't know if she's saved or not, but let's just pray for God to reveal His love to her in such an obvious way that it will be undeniable that it is God the Father of the Lord Jesus who is showering her with such unreserved love...

Please pray with me...

Something to Laugh/Think About!

"Backward, Christian Soldiers!" (To be sung to the tune of 'Onward, Christian Soldiers!')

Backward Christian soldiers, fleeing from the fight,

With the cross of Jesus, nearly out of sight!

Christ our rightful Master, stands against the foe,

But forward into battle, we are loath to go.

Like a mighty tortoise, moves the Church of God;

Brothers, we are treading, where we've often trod.

We are much divided, many bodies we,

Having different doctrines, not much charity.

Crowns and thorns may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,

But the Church of Jesus, hidden does remain.

Gates of hell should never, 'gainst the Church prevail,

We have Christ's own promise, but think that it will fail.

Sit here, then, ye people, join our useless throng;

Blend with ours, your voices, in a feeble song.

Blessings, ease and comfort, ask from Christ the King.

With our modern thinking, we don't do a thing!

Meditations on Learning

Today I had an encounter with God and came to one conclusion: we never dare to say that we HAVE learnt. We only dare to say that we are still learning.

I guess the conviction set in when I realised that in my listening to God, although I've heard some of these principles many times, there was 3 levels of understanding:

1. When listening, and comprehending;
2. When listening, and doing;
3. When doing becomes a habit, and finally part of us.

Today I had an encounter with God. I had been wondering, especially since yesterday night, why my spirit felt so dry yesterday during church. It only occurred to me when Huilian and Ivan prayed for me for like the 4th or 5th time yesterday, and then I realised that something was blocking, something seemed to be in the way, and the surprising thing was, something I had a lot of difficulty letting go.

So I could feel the power of the Spirit, I could feel the Spirit trying to whack something within me...but I had no idea what it was. And I was quite perplexed, actually.

Today was a heavy day. It would've been, if you felt as if you suddenly 'lost' the Spirit somewhere (that was the feeling, although that's not the fact obviously). But as I came back from the airport, where I was marking scripts:

Suddenly, I felt the stirring of the Spirit.

And as if on impulse, I told the Lord, "I can't help all these people, Lord. I'm just an ordinary church member. You can."

And then suddenly there was a flood of messages from the Lord. And I mean, a FLOOD. The Lord reminded me of all the lessons which I was supposed to have learnt in the past: how is it that "this church is not mine, it's his, and so I'm just a normal church member who just does his best for the Kingdom of God"--I am meant to "surrender this church into the hands of God"; about how "it's not up to us who to save, what to say, who to counsel, but He will put us in the correct time and place to make things happen for him"; about that "this whole SPIRITUAL LIFE, the very existence of our relationship with God, in fact depends more on Him than even us!--we can't even begin to produce this overcoming life even if we wanted to(!); and that "there are no rules in Christianity: only one rule--follow the Spirit".

And "this faith is a repenting faith. Repentance is our greatest gift and our greatest treasure".

If you had been in the Outreach the last few months, you would found all these statements familiar. They were God's lessons to me during those times, and with each of them was such a searing sense of unworthiness meant to remind me that these statements are not born out of "theory" or abstractions. They are only known when we realise that all our formulas for organising life are less than adequate for the perfection of life God has for us.

Sorry if this post seems rather abstract, I'm struggling to make it as concrete as I can. But what was the Lord telling me?

Simply this: I have not learnt as much as I hoped I'd learnt. Yes, the statements are familiar. Yes, it rings a bell. But no, it has not yet become a habit. Surrender, letting go, choosing to abide in the peace of Christ (and not worry about the ministry or school!) is not yet a habit of my life. I will tell you what's the habit--the need to organise, to be in charge, to make things happen; to doubt, to worry, to question; to "MAKE SURE" everything is ok and prepared. But he wants surrender. He wants me to know, to know, to KNOW--that I am not in control of the events of my life. I cannot control things to make it happen the way I want to. I can only surrender to the one who REALLY has control--the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the one who holds time in his hands and who will never ever change. And this cannot be intellectual surrender. How do I know if I have learnt? Only in a crisis. Only when things go suddenly wrong. My instant, unplanned, subconscious reaction is then the clearest answer as to whether I have known or not.

I am very humbled by the Lord. And I repent in dust and ashes.

I realised this is one of the dangers of leadership. As a leader, you try to draw upon your experience to bless others. But sometimes, unwittingly, we reinforce to ourselves that we KNOW. Problem? After a while, we actually believe that we know.

Today I have learnt that I have not known as much as I hoped. But that was my liberation. I have nothing to prove. And I'm not the Messiah. I just do whatever I'm supposed to, to please my Master as much as I can. And to be as obedient as I can. And if I happen to be at the right time, at the right place, with the right giftings, to bless someone else's life, I can rejoice that I was an eyewitness for what the Lord has done.

To God be all the glory. Or as we would say in modern language, "Well done, God!"

P.S.
Let us learn, until God's principles becomes a habit.
Let us learn, until learning becomes a habit.

God bless all of you.

I heard Angels singing :)

Hi everyone,
Just to share the experience that I had. It is definitely not the supper which I had had last night. Haha. I woke up at 6 a.m. just to wake Daniel. Then randomly, I took out my letters to read and arranged them before heading back to bed again.
Then I was in this place (it was either a dream or a vision). A place where Val and I were worshipping God. Suddenly, I heard some voices singing. They are the voices of angels!
I shifted my body and I was like half awake and half asleep but I could not open my eyes. The singing continued, so I listened carefully to what they were singing. Then I finally heard what they were singing…They were singing “Ye Su…Ye Su…” (Jesus in Chinese). I could not remember what they were singing fully but I could remember the tune. It was very, very clear. It was as if the angels are near my ears!
My hair stood on end and I could feel His presence around. I started crying….
Then my alarm rang… it woke me up fully.
Though I am awake now but I know it was not just an ordinary dream (if it was a dream).

– 31 July 09

--Jan

From Valerie Jayne Oon: "God Answers"

Elder's Note: This is from Val's Facebook note. She made a note, tagged all her atheist friends, and came under lots of fire for it. Hahahhaa. The Lord be your blessing in return, Val!

Again, read this in entirety or not at all. Atheists, unleash your skepticism (:
And I hope this will encourage the people running after God.
--

Walking home, I had debated in my head the wisdom of publishing this post. And if I’m honest, the only reasons stopping me are fear and shame. Fear of judgment and sadly, ashamed of God. I’ve been an atheist a good part of my thinking life and consequently, I know a good many people who stand on the same camp. People who, as I had been, would seriously question the sanity and intellect of theists. This is no joke for me. I’ve been wrestling with notions of my potential dementia or stupidity.

For months now, I’ve been struggling to come to terms with the concept of a loving God, our Creator, His omniproperties and His supernatural ability. My faith in Christianity has been, hitherto, experimental. In fact, oh my God, I’ve just remembered that now would be about time my timeline expired. Wow, great timing, God. So, in my hunger for The Truth and partly because of a personal ‘immersive’ side project to ‘field research’ for a module I was taking last semester (PH2211 Philosophy of Religion), I joined The Outreach and was soon convinced by Daniel to challenge the existence of God by means of an experimental faith that will span 6 months. And let me tell you, I had been fully prepared to walk away smugly in 6 months, all equipped with robust academic reasons against the existence of this being. Unfortunately for my conceit, He triumphed. Kind of. But in return, He is giving (has given and will give) me so much more.

My experimental journey with the Creator began with a tearfully uttered sinner’s prayer at CKRM, a church that move(d) in the power of the Holy Spirit, the second (?) time I visited. Why tearfully? I don’t know what came over me, I attribute it to fatigue (don’t wanna be presumptuous yet). That day was business as usual for the ‘crazy church’ (yes, that’s what I called it), manifestations all over the place that sent me to fits of hilarity. I have to admit that part of the reason I bothered spending my Saturday over there was the entertain I got in return. The presence of God in that place, apparently, was so strong that people drop like flies under the Spirit all throughout the preaching. Not only that, people laugh and run around the place, roar and tremble and all that stuff. I don’t even hear half the things the pastor says. (You people are so thinking we’re loonies.) That day, AGAIN, one of the pastors called me up to pray (with the intention of causing my manifestation-unsuccessfully). By the way, Dick is scared to death of that place because of that. Sorry your secret is out, dear. This time I was really scared because Dick had just fallen under the Spirit right before my eyes. I was totally NOT laughing anymore because I know him and I know he wouldn’t fake something like that. It was either delusion or the presence is real. So by that time, I was bawling my eyes out worrying for him. And honestly, I was half prepared to flee from this cult parade. Ok because I had been crying at the time, this part is a bit blurry. I can’t remember what the pastor was praying but she made me cry even harder, in a not-so-bad way, with me all the time trying my utmost best to stand on my wobbly feet and finally surrendering my full weight on Janice. Then I just felt, I don’t know, like, ready. I felt ready to get to know this God and see if He works out for me. So that was it–my first step, with Daniel and Janice and Dick holding my hands.

The past few months had me catapulting from vibrant belief to stubborn unbelief, desperate longing to incredulous disdain. Midway through this journey, I realized that no academic grounding can keep my faith until I experience the full glory of His word fulfilled for me. I completed that philosophy module defeated in my search for Truth because philosophy did nothing for me except give me false excitement only to take it away with each counter-argument and counter-counter-argument. And in the end, it left me with an inconclusive conclusion that made me wildly ravenous for a transcendental understanding of this world.

I began praying to God for a revelation. For such a spectacular revelation of His existence that I would have to be stupid to deny it. For such an intimate display that would only make sense to me and me alone and in that instant, strengthen my faith in Him so that I can never be the same again. For my own story to tell. A proof of Him so strong that my testimony can bring glory to Him through its impartation to disbelievers because I had been one of them. I don’t want a subpar understanding, I don’t want a subpar faith. I don’t want signs that I can rationalize to shreds of useless paper. I don’t want a squeak. I want to shout it out. I want the best or nothing at all. And if He was so great, I want to see Him do that.

Today, He finally moved a muscle. Today is the beginning of my never-be-the-same-again.

Today started out bad for me. In fact, it had started being bad since about that day I clubbed. God must be finally doing something about my social smoking. (Yep, secret’s out, not everyone knows that.) Long story short, I felt like crap after that day. In fact, on my way home at 4 a.m., I felt so remorseful I went to sit at the park and prayed for God to keep my bearings. Mostly, I also felt guilty towards Dick for dishonoring God. Weird how my brain works. That was Saturday. And then I couldn’t get my lazy ass to run. So I’m in desperate want of endorphin and I just felt ready to blow my top at some poor guy (namely, Dick). He really doesn’t deserve that so I prayed before leaving the house that God will bless the poor guy and bless me with some joy until I get my runner’s high.

We have theology classes by Chris the Genius, B.A. Theology, in Daniel’s house every Tuesday and today’s lesson on the apocalyptic worldviews of the Israelites pre-birth of Jesus -??- did nothing for me. But after class, I was fixated with Daniel’s gossip sharing with Dick and somehow the conversation evolved to him telling me about manifestations and testimonies of people who only experience it after years of desiring it. I began tearing and holding back tears. Specifically at the time Daniel mentioned his experience when he prayed for the Spirit to come and be his friend, stretching his hand out, it happened. It swept over him. Couldn’t complete his sentence, reduced to fits of giggles. And then I started sobbing, full force, like someone died. Ok I may be emotional but I don’t quite SOB at nothing. How do I explain what I felt at the time? Just…moved. Profoundly touched by some unnamed event or feeling or something. An opening in my heart. We joined hands in prayer and I just…felt. I felt that God…is. He exists. Period. You can have a bunch of academics postulating until the cow comes home and not reach a satisfactory conclusion but I tell you, this feeling. It’s like “Shut up, I am here. See? You can quit speculating.” I have NEVER felt like that in my life. Doubt consumes me. Doubt is me. But at that moment, all my heart and mind were in complete agreement to a fact that just happened. Wow. And I was uplifted.

Call me delusional. Then again, I wouldn’t even say this is a full revelation from God. He knows it’s not enough for me. It’s just a stir from Him. Something to keep me going, or just to cheer me up, or maybe He’s just being kind to Dick. I still have my doubts but now, I have no doubt that He will make Himself real to me… IF He really exists.

A statement I find so impactful I had to put it here

This was an answer given in response to a non-believing friend:

"How else can i understand this faith without immersing myself into it?-is there another way?, and finally, most imptly, i have been continually exposed to supernatural manifestations the past months. BUT i have been careful to 'resist' and doubt its effect, even as i prayed to God to touch me (because Christians would say He wouldn't presumptuously invade your personal space). it's personal so there's no other ways to justify other than give you a (as far as possible) rational account of my experience which of course is open to criticism. but then i value empiricism and so do many philosophers right. so that's all i can say. i felt it. and it was like no other. But the Christian God is not a God of Science. He will not be treated as an experiment yielding results that can be tested for anomaly and whatnot."

- Val Oon

Elder's Note: The first and last statement of this reply really demonstrates some fantastic insight into the working of God and about Christianity in general. Amen to them both. Our Christianity is experiential, and when we immerse ourselves in it, we begin to really KNOW if God is that real or not. Yet He is not an experiment. He is a BEING. "He will not be treated as an experiment". Powerful stuff.

And all this comes from a less than 1 yr old God-Fearer!

28th July 2009.

The day the Holy Spirit walked into our BI class. =)

What a blessed night.

We give Him all the glory.

Interesting Post by Ken Schenck...

Hi All,

An interesting post from Ken Schenck...as usual, thought-provoking, and always worthy of consideration...

To see what others have commented on this post, the URL is: http://kenschenck.blogspot.com/2009/07/41-apostles-overseers-and-deacons.html

Enjoy!

Apostles, Overseers, and Deacons

The New Testament does not articulate a clear leadership structure for a local assembly of believers. That is not to say that such churches did not have a fairly common structure. We may catch glimpses of one from time to time, like when Paul greets "overseers and deacons" at Philippi (Phil. 1:1). Paul calls himself and Barnabas "apostles" (e.g., 1 Cor. 9:1-6). 1 Peter refers to "elders" (1 Pet. 5:1), and 1 Timothy has a list of qualifications for an overseer or a deacon (1 Tim. 3:1-13).

But we are left to sort out exactly what these roles were and whether they were relatively uniform throughout early Christianity. Or did the leadership structures of local assemblies and Christian synagogues actually vary somewhat from place to place. It seems impossible to answer such questions definitively, although we can make educated guesses. When all is said and done, we must ultimately recognize that even if we knew for sure how leadership took place, we would still only have descriptions, not prescriptions for how churches should structure their leadership today.

Perhaps the easiest place to begin is with the category of apostle, a person "sent" on a mission. We find the word used in more than one way in Acts and Paul's writings. On the one hand are "the Twelve." The book of Acts in particular considered the twelve apostles in a special category of apostle, one for which Paul himself would not have qualified. In Acts 1, the earliest believers replace Judas with Matthias so that the number of twelve remains intact (1:12-16).

The qualifications for this role were that a person had been with Jesus from the time of his baptism up until the time of the resurrection (1:21-22). Acts implies that more than one person might have fit into this category, but it is Matthias who is chosen. Some have speculated that the early church made a bad decision here, that Paul should have been Judas' replacement. [1] But Paul would not have qualified as Judas' replacement given the criteria. He apparently had no encounters with Jesus during his earthly life. [2]

At the same time, both Paul and Acts also use a broader definition of a "sent one," an apostle. Acts 14:14 calls Paul and Barnabas apostles in this more general sense. And when Paul is defending his rights as an apostle, his criteria seem to be 1) that one has seen the risen Lord and 2) that the risen Lord has commissioned you as a special representative of it (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1). It is in this sense that he considers himself and Barnabas to be apostles (e.g., 1 Cor. 9:5-6). And it is perhaps in this sense that he considers the husband-wife pair of Andronicus and Junia to be apostles (Rom. 16:7).

There are some Pentecostal traditions today that use the word "apostle" of some of its leaders, many of which use the word Apostolic in their name. On the one hand, it is hard to find fault with the idea that certain individuals believe themselves to be called and sent by God in some special sense. At the same time, the burden of proof is on anyone who would suggest that we have apostles today of the same sort Paul or Barnabas were. Could the risen Christ appear to someone today in the manner he appeared to Paul? Certainly.

But it is not clear that any of those who call themselves apostles today would claim to have seen the risen Christ in the same way as Paul saw him. Similarly, Paul seemed to have considered himself the last of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:8-9). With some three years separating himself from the resurrection appearances he narrates, he considers himself to have been a "miscarriage" and uses the word "lastly." By implication, he does not believe any new apostles have come on the scene in the over twenty intervening years. You can see how extremely "untimely born" would be someone claiming that suddenly, two thousand years later at the beginning of the twentieth century, a whole slough of new apostles have suddenly started to flow again!

A second category of importance in the early church seems to be that of elder. In the Methodist tradition, ministers have historically been called "ordained elders." Presbyterian and Congregationalist traditions also have a category they call "teaching" elders that understands the word in this way (cf. 1 Tim. 5:17). No doubt this use of the word relates to 1 Peter 5:1, where Peter calls himself a "fellow elder" with the elders that are leaders in the churches to which he writes.

However, the Presbyterian sense of a group of "ruling elders" in a local church probably comes closer to what the New Testament usually meant when it referred to elders. Indeed, the word "Presbyterian" is a reflection of the Greek word for elder, presbyteros. We know that members of the Jewish ruling council were considered elders (e.g., Acts 6:12; 24:1). We can imagine that synagogues throughout the Diaspora were also structured in this way. Acts refers to the leaders of the Jerusalem church beyond James and the apostles, "elders" (e.g., 15:6). So it is no surprise to hear Acts tell us that Paul and Barnabas appointed "elders" in every town (14:23).

The word elder of course refers to an older person (e.g., 1 Tim. 5:1), and so it seems overwhelmingly likely that any elders in the early church were older. We can imagine that such elders tended to be male, but we have no evidence that a woman could not be an elder in a church. The matter of Paul's churches in particular is a question. If they had elders, it is hard to imagine that a Priscilla (e.g., Rom. 16:3; Acts 18:26) or a Phoebe (Rom. 16:1) would not have been on such a body at the appropriate age.

It is, however, at least a matter of debate whether Paul's churches were structured in this way. Our personal inclination is to consider overseers (e.g., Phil. 1:1) as synonymous with elders and thus conclude that Paul's churches probably did have elders as leaders. But it is significant to notice that Paul himself does not use the word "elder" in any of his unquestioned writings. The word appears only in 1 Timothy 5, and 1 Timothy differs enough from the thinking and categories of Paul's earlier writings that most consider it pseudonymous, written to convey Paul's authority to a context several decades after his death. [3]

As is often pointed out, the operations of Paul's churches, at least the one at Corinth, seem to have proceeded in much more of a "charismatic" than "presbyterian" way. Indeed, the worship at Corinth was so "spirit" oriented and open in its participation that it had apparently disintegrated into chaos. Everyone had a hymn or a prophecy or a lesson or spoke in an unknown tongue/language or had an interpretation of someone's unknown language. Paul tries to steer them out of this chaos. Tongues must have interpretations. Two or at the most three with prophecy and tongues-speaking, and one at a time.

So while Paul's church probably did have appointed leaders, the Spirit element seems to have dominated, at least at Corinth. "Do not put out the fire of the Spirit," he tells the Thessalonians, "and do not despise prophecy" (1 Thess. 5:19-20). This tension between the Spirit and structure seems to have been one of the structural conflicts of the first century. We likely see it reflected in the words of Matthew 7:21-23. Here are pictured exorcists and prophets who do not make it into Jesus' kingdom. 3 John seems to reflect a conflict between a travelling evangelist (Demetrius) is rejected by a powerful local leader (Diotrephes). And 1 Timothy 3's attention to structure may very well be a response to such travelling teachers (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5-9).

Paul thus pays little attention to church structure in his commonly agreed writings. Only as his writings look to the period after his death does church leadership become an issue. This in itself is a significant observation. While Paul was alive, he was the final authority as an apostle and father to his churches. He probably did leave leadership behind, but a more pneumatic, spiritual kind of environment seems to have more been the normal mode of operation. Paul does not use established leadership as the solution to church conflict.

Acts, on the other hand, does. Acts presents a very orderly and structured church with a fairly clear chain of command. The subjugated Paul of Acts is not the free wheeling apostle of his own writings. Where we are headed with these observations is, once again, that there is no absolute church structure that the New Testament prescribes. We can read between the lines to find a description, and even this description implies some diversity of focus. The New Testament thus provides models from which we may choose. But it does not tell us how to structure our churches today in terms of specifics.

We have two more categories of early church leadership to consider, which we must then map to those we have already mentioned. The first is that of overseer (episkopos). The word has sometimes been translated as "bishop," but this translation is greatly misleading in our current context. A bishop today is a person of authority over many local church leaders, usually centered in a metropolitan area. The New Testament does not use the word episkopos in this way. A modern day bishop comes closer to an apostle in the early church than to an overseer or elder.

In the two words presbyteros (elder) and episkopos (overseer) we see the two principal ways of structuring church leadership today. "Presbyterian" churches tend to be governed by a local group of elders, while "episcopal" churches tend to have a hierarchy of leaders that govern many local congregations, perhaps even up to the level of "archbishops" who govern bishops. Over time, of course, these structures have multiplied in diversity. In actually, Congregational churches are even more "presbyterian" than the Presbyterians, for local Presbyterian churches are actually under an authority that goes above the level of the local church. "Congregational" churches, on the other hand, are self-governing on the local level, as are most Baptist churches.

The idea of an "episcopacy" that governs local churches within a hierarchy of regional leaders is the structure of the centuries. As early as AD110, the church father Ignatius was telling the church leaders of local congregations within a city to obey their bishop/overseer, who by that time governed an entire city of leaders. The shift back to a more congregational structure among some groups thus did not come into play until well into the Protestant Reformation.

Both groups can claim biblical precedents for their structures. The congregational/presbyterian format seems to reflect the structure of most local assemblies in the early church (although not the charismatic character of many in the earliest church). Meanwhile, the episcopal structure reflects the role that apostles played in the early church and the structure that God allowed to dominate the Church for 1500 years (although often not in the give and take of the earliest church).

When Paul addresses the leaders of the church at Philippi, he includes its "overseers" and "deacons." It does not seem likely that the church at Philippi, where Paul spent far less time than at Corinth, would be larger than the single church at Corinth. It would therefore seem likely that by "overseers," Paul is referring to the elders of the church at Philippi rather than to single individuals who governed individual churches.

At the same time, if the early church borrowed the model of elders from the synagogue, it is quite possible that it also borrowed the idea of a synagogue ruler. Here we are thinking of a person who took the leadership of a synagogue for a year or so and then perhaps passed it on to someone else at a later time. Just because early churches had councils of elders would not in any way preclude a single individual from serving as leader of the group. Indeed, it is hard to imagine such leaders not emerging, whether they had any official title or not. Once again, we do not find any particular structure among churches today eliminated. We only feel chastized if we have been dogmatic about our structure.

The role of deacon seems difficult to spell out. The seven appointees of Acts 6 are often considered the precedent for deacons as individuals who perform less spiritual functions within the church, like making sure widows get fed. But Acts 6 does not call these seven individuals deacons. The two we know the most about, Stephen and Philip, become preachers. Acts 21:8 calls Philip an "evangelist," and Acts 8 certainly shows him going around proclaiming the good news and facilitating the Holy Spirit's engagement with Judea and Samaria.

One possibility that immediately comes to mind is that deacons tended to be church leaders who were not old enough to be elders. For example, it is interesting that 1 Timothy, which tells Timothy not to despise his youth (4:12) also refers to Timothy as a "deacon," even if the word is not usually translated this way in 4:6. It is this word that is used of Phoebe in Romans 16:1. In any case, the frequent translation of "servant," in Phoebe's case joined to a word that has the sense of patron (Rom. 16:2), may suggest someone who supports the church in a somewhat concrete way.

In Paul's somewhat charismatic church world, he mentions many other roles a person might have in a church. 1 Corinthians 12:28 mentions apostles, prophets, teachers, and then blurs off into things like people who perform miracles or heal or administrate or speak in tongues. This is not an absolute list, as some to make up "spiritual gift tests" treat them. The first three have the most status, but then he mentions not offices in the church but a sampling of some gifts people in the churches of his day had.

So in Romans 12:6-8 he mentions prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, contributing, leading, and being merciful. Ephesians 4:11 mentions apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. What we have hear are important functions that need to take place in the church more than anything like an absolute list of how to package them. Those that expend great amounts of energy trying to line themselves up to these sorts of lists worry about lists Paul at least partially was creating on the spot in relation to his audiences and whose functions no doubt overlapped.

Evangelists were perhaps, like Philip, individuals who proclaimed the good news, but who had not seen the risen Jesus personallty. Travelling teachers would become a problem as the first century progressed. These were perhaps individuals who, like the Greek sophists, would set up shop in a place, relying on the patronage of some wealthy individual. A recurrent theme in books like 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, 2 Peter, and Jude is false teaching, so it is no wonder Christianity soon developed a system of authority to control right teaching.

The role of prophets was apparently very significant in the early church. When Ephesians adds prophets to the foundation of the church (2:20), it is almost certainly referring to Christian prophets rather than the prophets of the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 14 shows the important role they played in the worship at Corinth. Such individuals brought revelation to the assembly, which may often have urged the church on, and perhaps sometimes predicted things that were about to happen.

The vast majority of the functions of these "leadership roles" in the early church remain important for Christians today. However, there is no biblical mandate for us today to structure our leadership in the same way they did. Even in our descriptions of varying strands of the New Testament church, there is some variety. And even then, we do not find exact prescriptions for how to structure church leadership today.

[1] Indeed, some have used this instance as an argument against gambling, "casting lots." :-)

[2] Although some have argued that 2 Cor. 5:** implies that Paul had at least seen him while he was on earth. Paul's statement, however, does not necessarily imply that much.

[3] And while our personal inclination is to think Acts 14:23 is an accurate historical reflection of Paul's practice, to be circumspect we must acknowledge that Acts is not simply a documentary of what happened but is as much a position piece in relation to the church of its day, which we would see written probably in the 80s.