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Monday, December 25, 2006
okay since im free now [man it feel so weird not having anything urgent to do]. unleash!
last message by psandrew. main points without elaboration.
John 12:25 the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
there can be no real life unless we are willing to die- our pride, living for ourselves, interests, reputation etc. if we want to really live, we have to die in our flesh before God can enter and work in our lives.
only when we are broken can we receive/ experience the never-ending flow of the power of His spirit in our lives and have deeper love and worship. a cycle: brokenness and humility --> repentance --> forgiveness --> freedom --> love --> worship --> brokenness [and it starts again]
when our natural strength is broken down, the power of God is able to flow through us. [for youths who dont understand, this is basically why psandrew's message ties in with the camp theme: unleash]
tools God uses to show our need for brokenness- His word, circumstances, brothers and sisters in Christ.
how to have a deeper level of brokenness
1. get closer to God
- the closer we are, the better we see ourselves. we are sinful against God's holiness and purity.
- Job: he was defensive and saw himself as a victim at first. when God spoke to him, he realised that he was a sinner and in need of God's mercy [Job 40:4, 42:5-6]
- Isaiah: woe to them/ those vs woe is me [Isaish 6]
2. choose to be broken. dont make God break you.
- fall on the rock and be broken [choose to be broken] vs letting the rock fall on you [God crushing us and our pride]
- Proverbs 29:1 a man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed- without remedy.
- in the end, God will bring down all that does not exalt Him but themselves
- Isaiah 2:11-12 The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. the Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted [and they will be humbled].
- a choice we make to lay down our self-life everytime we face difficulties and look to Him
3. acknowledge spiritual need to God and others
- transparent and honest with others
- James 5:16 therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
it's a never-ending battle of pride vs brokenness, self vs God. what we have to do is to always surrender God. the longer you delay the harder it is to resist and the more difficult it is to obey Him. we HAVE to be broken in order to experience His joy and the power of His ressurection, life, free-flowing power of the Holy Spirit and the wholeness- all of these cannot be imagined.
psandrew's challenge for us was to do point number 3- acknowledge spiritual need to God and others and to be transparent and honest with others. he wanted us to write notes to 5 people whom we have done wrong to [whether the person is aware of it or not]- whether actions-wise, thoughts-wise etc. for those who know me well enough, both are very difficult things for me to do. only people whom i really close to or people who are able to break through me [which is basically very few people] know my prayer requests and how my spiritual life is going. but first before i talk about myself, let's talk about the notes i received from others. i received quite a lot of notes, some were rather unexpected. shant say anything about it. someone who decided to remain anonymous wrote "i apologise for being jealous that you're able to serve God". that really struck me. and i suddeny realised that yeah, it's really a blessing to serve God. as what my mum told me since p4 when i started serving [i started off playing for the first worship service and there were times when i start complaining and all] "God does not need you. even if you refuse to serve Him, He will find someone else who has a heart to serve." and whoever wrote that note, thank you for that. because a while ago, i was starting to think "im able to serve God because i have the ability to do so" instead of "im able to serve Him because He has blessed me and used me to glorify Him." and the note brought me back down, from myself above God to God before me. it's God's glory and only His glory- none of it belongs to me, all should and has to be returned to Him.
now about myself. i know i held a pen and stared at the blank sheet of paper for a very long time, thinking of what to write, and how to write. it wasnt an easy task. i prayed a lot about it, to give me the courage to just write things down. my hand was shaking when i was writing- it just shows how difficult it is. but i managed to complete the first part of the challenge. as for the second part of the challenge, until now i havnt completed it yet. so it's not mission accomplished. it's an internal struggle, telling people [even the ones mentioned above] my prayer requests. i dont know, it just requires a lot of courage. come to think of it, it's quite ironic, ive got so much pride but so little courage. i hate myself for not having enough courage to throw away my pride. but i know if i dont do it soon, it's going to eat me up and i dont want that to happen. but... there are so many things going through my mind that i dont know how to phrase it.
but no matter what, im very thankful for unleash. ive been running away from topics on pride and brokenness. the messages addressed the topic on pride directly. and i wasnt able to run away this time.
okay more on unleash another time. and btw there are 2 new posts before this. until then (: have a blessed christmas, and for all you have yet discovered the true meaning of christmas, i pray that you will.
simplicity.
*****
simple facts
peiling
30 march
christian
tnsrgs
