Sigh… the peace of God truly surpasses all understanding. Phillipians 4:6 and 7 points out “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Simply said, I have been worrying about not worrying and… now I know why. I guess I have been worrying and praying so much that I forgot to wait for the answer. (Happens to a lot of other people as well I know. We pray so much for a miracle that we forget to thank God for it in advance or even keep an eye out for it.) Now I am wholly confident to enter the exam halls although a little jittery or rather nervous but that’s good. Wouldn’t be human if I entered without any fear, would I?
But that is beside the point. After another powerful prayer meeting with my college’s Christian Fellowship, we went out for a good mamak and fellowship session and suddenly a thought struck me. (Btw, if you are wondering if there are coincidences from the Christian perspective, no. There aren’t any. There is only the will of God and the consequences of Man’s actions. Christianity is a relationship with the LIVING FATHER not a religion. Never meant to be and never have been.)
A little off topic but I was kind of wondering, don’t you think the current, modern church has reverted from its Protestant roots back to Pharisee style teaching? Why do I say that? Well, back in the Pharisee days, inter alia (amongst others), they taught and the people listened. That kinda seems to be happening to the church today. The pastor preaches and people listen. But the Christian walk is not about coining cool titles, names or having cool accessories but rather about a PERSONAL relationship with God. Notice the word, PERSONAL. We can’t be living on the pastor’s words alone and not have our own personal convictions.
Here’s a little secret for you.
Pastors are human too. And there are times to interpret the Bible wrongly. That’s why the Bible says “Test the spirits”. (Which means right now you should be testing what I say as well. These are my personal convictions. Not that they are wrong but they are just what God has taught me. Differing views of a God too huge to be easily catalogued) True they are biblically trained and all but they are still human, no higher than us and no cleaner or better. Seeing it in that light, respect them for the burden they carry and the anointing of God of course but have your OWN walk with the Lord. You wouldn’t want to be burning in Hell with them just because they were wrong would you?
And yes, Christians can also go to Hell. This is a scary bit and I hope you WAKE UP. The Christian walk is not about church and reading the Bible. Again, the Christian walk is a personal walk with GOD! Luke 14:24 to 28 points out Jesus’ words where he says “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because MANY(This I highlight to make my point), will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, “Sir, open the door for us.”
But he will answer, “I don’t know you or where you come from.”
Then you will say, “We ate and drank WITH YOU, and you taught in OUR streets.”
But he will reply, “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!”
There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.”
Sad huh? Notice that when the people replied “We ate and drank WITH YOU, and you taught in OUR streets” it sort of seems that they barely knew God. It’s like they said, “Eh that day I got spend that one mamak meeting with you what. And remember last year’s church camp when you came to preach, I also was there what. How come you don’t know me?”
The answer is simple. You don’t know Him and haven’t made an effort to. That’s why Jesus says in Revelations that He will spit lukewarm Christians out of His mouth. Like my CF(Christian Fellowship) President pointed out today that normal Christian go to hell. Normal in the sense that they come to church, Cell/Home/Youth Group, seem to be serving well in several ministries, tithing, giving regular large amounts of offering and so on. Why doesn’t God value those? He does but if you don’t have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with God, you would be doing all these things out of ulterior motives or because you feel obligated. And mind you…
That will earn you a first class ticket to Hell.
[Pause for effect]
Scary huh? Sorry to put this so bluntly but it’s happening in a lot of churches because Satan has managed to penetrate the church and unless you yourself do something about it, you are not going to be very safe.
Do take into account that God is a merciful God and one full of grace but do realize that there is a time limit to things and the people who end up in Hell are those who have heard the gospel several times but have rejected it after understanding it fully or those who do ministry out of jealously, greed, pride, etc. and not genuine love for God.
So put away all your idols and start connecting with this living God. How? Here are some things that helped me.
1)Read His word and ask Him to speak to you. (Don’t worry if you fall asleep halfway or something along that line. He is a God full of grace AND he made us. He knows we get tired or just can’t concentrate most of the time) Don’t worry if the reading seems boring. In order to finish the Bible you cannot imagine the torture I went through. (Sorry Lord but you know all those horrible nights…horrible…) It was like trying to squeeze things from God’s Word when He was trying to tell me something else. But soon He began to speak more to me when I allowed Him to do the leading instead and now He speaks to me every time I open the Word.
2) Get connected with people who really love God as well. This will help you learn more from each other though I would advice you to be on your guard at all times. NEVER EVER TRUST ANYONE BUT THE WORD OF GOD! That’s because His word will never lead you falsely but people get confused or misinterpret the Word or are just plain members of some cult group which they themselves probably don’t know about or realize. Be on your guard and again “Test the spirits.”
3) Constantly talk to Him. Whether it’s in the bus or train or even in the shower. It doesn’t have to be out loud (God can hear your thoughts. Satan can’t. Mwhahahahaha! How the enemy seems to be able to nail you so well with gloomy, lusty, ‘kill yourself’, ‘you are worthless’ thoughts is because he probably has some agent watching you ever since birth so they know your character pretty well. Scary huh?) Don’t be afraid to pray and so on so forth. It’s just talking. Don’t worry about big vocab and all that. If you are wondering how you can develop that, simple. These big vocab fellas are either people who have learnt to use Scripture and the leading of the Spirit in spiritual warfare (This is a whole different topic. I will not touch on anything else here for the moment at least) or people who just want to impress everyone.
The second group better get your act together before you lose your ticket to heaven as well. Anyways, get to know God. You will realize He is the funniest person you will ever get to know and the wisest as well. You can imagine the things He tells me. Earth shaking. And if you think you are a ‘mature enough’, then you are not. The Christian cannot NEVER finish learning because he/she learns from an infinite God who will NEVER run out of things to teach. You may return to one verse again and again and the funniest things is that you will realize things in there you never saw before. Cool huh?
I think that’s about it. Can’t really think of anything else to add in addition to these three. But yeah, please, start now. Don’t wait for tomorrow or next week. It’s never too late or early. Each day could bring new challenges where you need the power of God to intervene.
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Anyways, back to the thought that struck me at the mamak session. Have you heard of the ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ theory. It came out in that TV series known as ‘Six Degrees’ (How boring can a name get?) What the theory says is that every person is connected to every other person on the planet through six people. For example:
Eg: I am connected to Zac Efron with the following diagram.
Danny – Mum – Mum’s Friend A(Producer of local shows) – A’s son (Moved to
Cool huh? I think this is how it works. Didn’t really get a good read at it but if this were true can you imagine the implications? If we were able to teach everyone around us to influence the people around them, you could impact the whole world by influencing everyone and teaching them to spread that teaching and influencing others. Confusing?
Simply put, can you imagine the impact you have on people’s lives? If I let’s say believe that
Amazing? I think so too.
That would mean we have to watch our words and actions well. Think of the impact we would have on the whole world. That’s why even touching one person with the truth of God’s love is so important. You’ll never know who he/she would impact next with God’s teachings or principles or even stories of your testimonies and life. You’ll never know when you would be impacting the next Billy Graham or Ps. Cho. Each life can change the world and it it’s imperative(vital/important) that we live the life God has called us to live and also help everyone in need and treat everyone with love and respect. Never turn away even one person.
USHERS! Your ministry is the most important. You are the first face or first contact people usually have with any church. Don’t drive them away. Each and everyone is precious to God. I once heard a story that if an usher of a church had driven away Ghandhi(sp?) from the church doorstep when he was seeking for the truth just because of the colour of his skin. Can you imagine what Ghandhi(sp?) could have done to change the nation and ultimately the world with the God’s love message?
So remember, keep a careful watch on your life and remember, if you have submitted everything into God’s hands what makes you think anything can go wrong. If they do go wrong, it’s because God has something BETTER in store for you. How cool is that? A win win situation ALWAYS.
May the Love of the Father be with you and keep you safe…
-Ellipsis-
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