Love [3] – Loving yourself, 27 Dec

Time : 8pm

Venue : FOE (CR1026)

Is learning to love yourself really what people need to learn? Is loving yourself the answer to your needs in life? How does it apply in our Christian life? Come and explore more about this topic.

As the year comes to a close soon, Lets come together to remember and appreciate the things in this year and prepare ourselves for this coming Christmas. See you There =)

Date : 20 Dec
Time : 8pm
Venue : FOE (CR1026)

Chillex Night!

Date : 13 Dec

Time : 8pm

Venue : FOE (CR1026)

Come take a break from studying and assignments. Join us to have some fun and just relax. There would be some awesome console games and board/ card games too!!

Summary: Ultimate Goal? Being Christ like

Who is Christ?

Savior
Healer
Redeemer
King of kings
High Priest
Prince of Peace
Lord of lords
Son of man
Lamb of God
Good Shepherd
Messiah etc...

We need to know who Christ is, simply because we cannot grow into being someone we do not know."

7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christs gift.8 Therefore He says: When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.9 (Now this, He ascended what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the headChrist16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.20 But you have not so learned Christ,21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
(Ephesians 4:7-24 NKJV)

<<< I AM A NEW CREATION >>>

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 corinthians 5:17)

How?

• By continually allow your mind to be changed

• And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

• Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5 NKJV)
  

• Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11 Amplified)
  

• For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
  

• Your actions is based on your beliefs

Testimony : Realized

Being brought up in a Christian family, I have always followed my parents to church, to worship and prayed to God, to follow the 10 commandments...but, all that was merely following as it was the “family culture”. Sadly, I didn’t understand the purpose of doing it...i’m just doing it blindly...

Thanks God for His plan that at one time I begin to wonder...asking what is the purpose behind all the “being Christian-like” person. Is it just to please the community? Or it is to please God? My answer...neither one of it...because all that He wants is to have this very close and special relationship with you...so that we can learn to be like Him, and he’ll bring us to the right path.

When I was asked to write a testimony, first thing that comes to mind...Oh no! What testimony do I have to share with people? I don’t have...I don’t have those freaking awesome testimony like my friends who experienced miracles...but...wait...isn’t being able to wake up every morning, staying alive and breathing is a miracle? Look at things around you...did you ever wonder how could trees stay alive by breathing through the small holes on its leaves? How would birds have wings and know how to fly in the sky? Stupid questions?

Who would have this unexplainable power that has created all this? Why do human even have brains that know how to think and being able to write this testimony now? All praise to God as this is all the miracles that He had done in our life without us realizing it.

At this point of time, all I that I want is to give thanks to God for all that I have in life. Good and bad things happen...you may ask...how would we give thanks even when bad things happen? Just bare in mind that there’s always a reason for things to happen. We may not know of the reason now...but God will reveal the answer...somehow...and you’ll realize that nothing else could be better than that.

Love each other as how God loves you. How God loves us? Can’t seem to see the love and feel the love? Open your heart to Him my friend. And he’ll show you...There’s nothing greater than His LOVE for us. There’s no one that can be closer to us than Him alone. Thank you loving Father for blessing each and every one of us. Be grateful for all that you have, because He’ll always give you more than you need.

Thank you.=)

By V.T.~

Summary: Love (2) - Loving God, 29 November 2011

We know John 3:16. We know how much God loves us, that He sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins in order to restore us to our position in the spiritual hierarchy. (Refer to previous post) God’s love is beyond human understanding. God is very wise, He is a genius. We use a few years just to study a certain aspect of God’s creation. However, God doesn’t purposely want to be complicated. He wants us to know Him better. Being children of God, we are privileged to enjoy our ‘royalty’ position which we ourselves do not have to earn it.All this because God’s love is unconditional and overflowing that whoever believes in Him and accepts Jesus Christ as his Saviour will have such privilege.

God first loves us, therefore we love. He is the source of love and by reciprocating His love to us, we love Him back. In the small little things we do everyday in our lives, we are actually showing how God’s love lives in us and at the same time loving Him. We go to church, we come to CF, we worship Him, we study His words, all this simply shows our love to God.

The main reason we love God is because we want to love Him, not because we want to earn something from Him. Typical Asian culture roots in our mind since young, telling us that everything which is good needs to be earned and reward comes hand in hand with it, like the law of sowing and reaping. But when we love God, we don’t love Him with theintention of wanting to be loved more. God looks at the heart, so we love him genuinely from the heart. And the whole point is that He’s already given us His love; we have been loved from the very beginning and will always be. We don’t have to ask for more. God’s perfect love comes from zero percent of our hardwork. As long as we are children of God, His love is already our eternal inheritance.

However, we can do greater things than that. God, through His love in us, wants us to live out His words without fear. Many Christians live in fear. We fear that when sometimes we do things like loving our enemies, we may be perceived by the worldly people as hypocrites or not conformed to the norm. We fear of not being acknowledged, not being appreciated and being rejected especially when telling the non-believers about how awesome God is and how we are redeemed through Christ. We fear that by saying such straightforward yet ultimate truth, we will have to bear the rejection. More often we tend to rather say things euphemistically. In short, we subconsciously do things with fear and this is not perfect love. In fact, when a person rejects the Good News that you share to him, he is actually rejecting God’s love. It’s between that individual and God. So why we fear?

The Bible says perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with punishment. (1 John 4:18) Therefore, we have to stop being afraid of the right thing that the Holy Spirit tells us to do. Our responsibility is to preach the gospel. Reach out to people not out of fear, do evangelism not out of fear. Fear doesn’t reflect perfect love. We need to get the truth of we being so loved by God very deeply until it becomes our default point. Don’t feel condemned. Whenever we fear, we go back to God, allow His prefect love to dwell in us and help us to wipe out the negative within us. Instead of letting the Asian typical mindset to control our thinking, we ask the Holy Spirit to assure us intuitively that our position is already restored and hence we can be comfortable with our new identity in Christ.

We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Another way to love God is by making disciples and this requires us to be disciples first. Making disciples can take our lives thus it is like the love that Jesus displayed to mankind. However, being a Christian is not like a competition. It’s not valued and measured by how much we do (or how many disciples we make etc) because everything we manage to do comes from God, if His will allows that. The glory eventually belongs to Him.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16) As we know that we are loved, we are children of God, it prompts us want to love more. We need not fear because nothing can separate us from God, not our past, present or future. (Romans 8:38-39) (God’s) Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8) So, let us not love by merely saying but by appropriate actions. (1 John 3:18)

P.S. Read John 14,15,16 too. Don’t just read one chapter, read the whole text to get the full picture. Or else if you just focus on one aspect like if you love Me you will obey my commands, you’ll feel that you are a terrible person who doesn’t deserve God’s love. :D

By Faithful~

Ultimate Goal? Being Christ like.

Date : 6 Dec

Time : 8pm

Venue : FOE (CR1026)

Come and let us find you what being Christ-like it is suppose mean!!