Strictly for CHRISTIANS: Mega EVENTS, good?

Taken from http://www.churchleaders.com/files/article_images/worship_crowd_802061783.jpg

I've seen many mega Christians events that brings many people regardless whether you are a believer or not together in one seating. This is a good initiative to gather people from different ethnicity and different believes.

Is this a good effort? Yes, I definitely agree!

My concern is since there are so many big Christian events that can invite our friends, are we taking the backseat not to share the gospel with our friends directly? What I seen is that many think that it is not my forte to share the gospel because;

1. I am not capable.
2. I am not so holy like my pastor or teachers.
3. I did not read the whole Bible yet. 
4. I do not have an awesome story to tell how God change my lives.

What many fail to understand is that we are missionary in school or in campus or at WORK. We are the ones who will be the LINK to share the gospel with. We are the ones who will allow friends to see what Christ had done in their lives. We are the ones at the front sharing about Christ.

Matthew 28: 19-20

"Therefore go and make disciples of ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Therefore go and make disciples of ALL NATIONS: This is a command for all who called on God the Father and God the Son and believes in the work of the Holy Spirit. Not solely a command for those who are in the work of ministry.
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Baptizing is a public declaration of your faith to the community of believers that you believe in the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. To baptize 'them', means that they too had received God and publicly declaring their faith. 
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you: To teach them what you have learned that your faith is firm in God.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age: and don't worry. He is with you ALWAYS, when you shared your faith to your friends through words and actions. Even if your friends are not ready to receive, continue to pray and be a friend to your friends.

The four "I AM and I did not" that I can think of, God is saying you don't need to be extravagant in sharing your lives.

1. I am not capable. (God is in a business of using willing hearts to share lives with many)
2. I am not so holy like my pastor or teachers. (God did not put that as the FIRST RULE to share His story)
3. I did not read the whole Bible yet. (Also, this is not the rule to do so, but God gave you the Bible to read to firm your faith in Him)
4. I do not have an awesome story to tell how God change my lives. (The fact you receive God and God is in your life because of what He has done is already an AWESOME story)


So, what about the mega Christian events? Mega Christian events are good to introduce Christ to your friends. The crucial work comes after. That is to share with them what is it like when God comes into your life. However, mega events only come two months once approximately. Where as to be a friend means that we can share lives together starting from now.

Start with what you already have.

means now you have friends, build deep friendships with them. 

Pray for them. 

One day, in hope they will come to know Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Love birthed Faith, Faith birthed Courage

Faith is being sure what we hope for and being certain of what is not seen.

Hebrews 11:1, NIV

When we know the LOVE that gives peace, assurance and hope, we can be sure of the things that we hope for. Things in the future are hard for us to perceive. Just like this game shows I heard on Red FM, ‘The Box’. You are required to answer a simple question. Then, you are given two choices; cash or the box. In the box, there is a surprise GIFT. It may be an EXTRAVANGANT GIFT, or a simple gift such as two bottles of the 500 ml water. Many had participated. Many had win and brought home the CASH! I remembered one man sighing when he had discovered that in the box was a trip to a beautiful island, compared to the load of cash at hand.

Obviously our life is not like the game show. However, we could see some similarities that we often go for the things that could be SEEN or EXPLAIN, rather than the UNSEEN or UNEXPLAINABLE. We discount our faith to only things that could be SEEN with physical eyes. Why? Because we are afraid. We have fears that if we put our hope to the things unseen, that our lives will be out of control.

This fear is genuine, because it is into the unknown. When you and I placed our trust in Him, our unseen and unexplainable future is certain. Because it is there we find assurance that no matter where we go, we will have peace because He is with us. 

One day, there is a man lying on his death bed. There is a Christian doctor who worked at the hospital, who hopes that he can share the gospel with him. So, day and day, the doctor will go and check on him and have conversation with him. Soon after, the man on the death bed asked the doctor, “Do you believe there is heaven and hell?” The doctor caught by surprised, looked at the man and said, “Yes, I do.” The man replied, “Do you know where you are going?” The doctor said, “I know where I will go, that is heaven.” The man who had bad experiences with Christians, quickly challenged the doctor, “How do you know? How can you be sure? How sure you are going to heaven?” He added on, “If you can prove to me, I will give my life to Jesus.” The doctor was lost of words. So, he went home and prayed and seek the Lord. Few days passed by. He still haven’t gotten his answer to the questions of the man.

Taken from http://www.sorrywatch.com/2013/07/30/apologies-in-medicine-a-post-by-an-actual-doctor/

Now, this doctor has a dog. His dog is a faithful dog. Everytime, he comes home from work, his dog will be so happy to see him. As he goes about doing house chores, his dog followed him back and forth in the house. One night, as he was seeking the Lord, he looked at his dog and finally gotten his answer. 

The next day, he got permission from the hospital to bring his dog to visit this man. He got the dog all clean and sterilized. So, he went to the man’s room. Knocked on the door, and enter with his dog. He did his usual checks on him. The man who was curious, looked at the doctor and asked, “Why did you bring a dog here?” The doctor smiled and looked at him, “This is your answer to the questions that day.” The man was puzzled. Then, the doctor explained, “You asked me how can I be so sure where I am going in the after-life? I thought for days and sought the LORD but I didn’t find a solid answer to tell you. So, one day when I was resting, and my dog was by my side, then I realized something. My dog is a faithful dog. Every time I come home after work, it will greet me with smiles and followed me whole-hearted back and forth in the house. Today, I have brought my dog to an unknown place. Instead, of being frightened of its new surroundings, it calmly follow me in and out of my office and now in your room. It is not afraid, because my dog knows I am here with him. Same goes to my faith in Christ. I will not be afraid where I will be going after this life, because I know I will be with Him. With Him by my side, I am comforted.”

The man eyes welled up with tears.” May I have this kind of assurance that you have?” asked the man. The doctor puts his arms around the man and prayed.

Am I making this story up? No, absolutely no. It is a testimony of a friend. Thus, when we know WHO we LOVE and have the communion with HIM, then our LOVE will birth FAITH in our life. With this FAITH, we will be COURAGEOUS to live life in accordance to Him, by Him and through Him.

LOVE, the greatest of all

Love birthed Faith, Faith birthed Courage.

-Nick Vujicic-

LOVE has become something that is cliché or even weak in the eyes of many. This has to be REDEEMED in today’s world. LOVE is the GREATEST of all that gives u strength, assurance and courage to pull through. I am not talking about human love. Human love fails, but there is one that never will fail us, that is God’s love. Because of this perfect LOVE from GOD, then we can have FAITH that He will never fail us, and from there, it will birthed out in us COURAGE to put our words in actions.

Taken from http://mikyunglim.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/proverbs-31-30-29-28/

Psalm 8:3-5 [NIV]

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

What is man that you are mindful of him,

The son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower that the heavenly beings

And crowed him with glory and honor.

He is an ALMIGHTY GOD. Who are we that He care for us? Simple. It is because of the LOVE He had given to us that He made us and crowned us with glory and honor. HIS LOVE surpasses our logic understanding. 

He could have created MAN programmed to LOVE HIM no matter what. Instead, He gave us a choice. He first showed us LOVE. In our minute understanding, we have to choose whether we want to reciprocate the LOVE that He has given us, to Him. When we learned to LOVE HIM with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all our strength, our entire focus will be on Him. Not because we are forced to do so, but we are delighted to do so. Not because we don't have a mind of our own, but we have discovered something greater and more valuable than gold and silver. To love Him, we cannot do it out of own, but we have to rely on Him to LOVE Him. This is because our love can turn out selfish and deceitful, because of our human nature.

                              He has given his LOVE for us, will we open our hearts to accept Him?

LOVING someone takes time to grow. It's a long process, but a meaningful and heart-warming experiences.

Come near to God and he will come near to you

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

– James, one of the fathers of the first-century church –

I read of this story. I find that it explained the above statement clearly. 

There’s a story of a man driving a convertible on a mountain road who took an unexpected turn too quickly and went right over the edge. As his car fell, he managed to grab on to a tree sprouting from the cliff face as his car dropped a thousand feet to the canyon floor.

 

“Help!” he screamed. “Can anyone hear me?” An echo was the only response.

 “God, can you hear me?” he cried.

Suddenly the clouds rolled together and a voice like thunder said, “Yes, I can hear you.”

“Will you help me?”

“Yes, I will help you. Do you believe in me?”

“Yes, yes, I trust you. Please, hurry.”

“If you trust me, then let go of the tree,” thundered the voice.

After a long silence, the man cried, “Can anyone else hear me?”

We trust God in good times, when bad times come about, our faith is tested. Unrealisingly, sometimes we act like the man holding onto the tree. We expect God to work in our means or ways. When it is not according to our ways, we swapped sides. We go back to expecting help in the form we want.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Isaiah 55:8-9.

So, the equation is simple. Come near to God and he will come near to you. When you desire to be near to God, it must be put to actions and then you will know His heartbeats. He will come near YOU, means your senses will be refined knowing He is there carrying you through, because from the beginning, he is already near you. 

The question is whether do you realize and acknowledge your DEPENDANCE on GOD? 

Are you near Him today? 

[John C. Maxwell: Today Matters, Today's FAITH Gives Me Peace, pg. 197- 213]

Growing a heart takes time

I’ve come to know Jane Goodall recently. She had invested five decades (50 years) of her life to wildlife research, education and conservation of the chimpanzees in Gombe. Gombe is in Africa. Throughout her years of growing up, she had grew to love animals. 

I would like to share part of her story of growing her heart for animals.

On one occasion, Vanne returned home during the war years to find the house curiously empty; everyone, she soon learned, was out searching for young Jane, who at this point had been missing for several hours. 

By seven o’clock that evening, expressions were turning grave. “I don’t remember who saw her first – a small, disheveled figure coming a little wearily over the tussocky field by the hen houses,” Vanne wrote. “There were bits of straw in her hair and on her clothes, but her eyes, dark ringed with fatigue, were shining. ‘She’s found,’ someone called out and soon the searchers were all back and gathered around Jane in the stable yard. 

‘Wherever have you been?’

‘With a hen.’

‘But you’ve been away for nearly five hours. What can you possibly have been doing with a hen all that time?

‘Well, you see, I had to find out how hens lay eggs, so I went into the empty coop and sat in the corner and waited until a hen came in who didn’t mind me there.’

‘So, then what happenened?’

‘A hen came at last.’ Jane’s eyes glowed with inner radiance. 
‘It was a long time, but she came at last and then she laid an egg. I saw her. So now I know how a hen lays an egg.’

 Dusk was fast gathering under the trees as we made out way back to the house. I had Jane firmly by the hand. She had just spent five hours crouched double in a stuffy hen coop, but the result had made it all worthwhile. She had successfully, and to her own entire satisfaction, completed her first animal-research program. She had observed a hen laid an egg.”

I want to highlight Jane’s perseverance, patience and hope, to build that bond with animals. Her heart grew so much for the animals, that investing her life is all worthwhile. I learned and reminded by TWO THINGS.

· To grow a heart for people takes time.
· To build trust from people takes risk and sacrifice.

We can learn so much by observing how nature worked around us. Through that, we also will learn to be better human.

Will we be willing to spend SO MUCH TIME to grow a heart for people? Will we be willing to take the risk of being a listening ear or to even share our lives with people? Will we be willing to sacrifice for people? Will we take that step forward and laid ourselves for people? 

  

How can I grow a heart for people? Start by thinking what is it like in their shoes. Start by listening to them rather than condemning. Start with pure motives to build relationships with people, and to grow a heart that accept diversity and differences.

Maybe when we start to grow a heart for people and maybe when we start to take risks and sacrifices to build trust, then something we will witness something beautiful. Just like Jane, who had witness how a hen lay an egg.

“So, let us move forward with faith in ourselves, in our intelligence, in our indomitable spirit. Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.” –Jane Goodall-

(From the book Jane Goodall by Her Mother, Vanne Goodall)