Being Teachable

Being teachable is so important. If you don't think you have a problem, nobody can teach you a thing. The only reason why we learn from someone is because we believe that someone knows something that we don't. And so many people don't learn anything after a long period of time, not because of the teacher, but that heart that won't receive.

Of course in the Kingdom of God it's the same way. Pastor said this to us one day, "Sometimes I meet people (who carry a wrong attitude/did something wrong/can do things in a better way) and I correct them, but they don't want to listen. After once, after twice, if he still doesn't listen, I let him be." Even my wise fiancee, Joyce said something to me, "I'll just talk to the person once, if he doesn't want to listen, I won't bother about him."

We can't be helped if we don't want to listen!

Many years ago, My leader taught me something which I felt I didn't agree with, so I stated my point of view I learnt from another person, (obviously in hindsight, my point of view was actually wrong). I was persistent to prove to my leader that I'm right and he was wrong. My leader was so heart broken, in the end he gave me a choice, "Did that guy preach to you every week, did that guy visit you when you were backsliding, did that guy give you bible study, did that guy counsel you when you have a problem? If yes then you follow his advice."

That shook me, because I knew in my heart, it was my leader who was doing all these things, and not "that guy". My leader drew the line, and I knew I had to make a choice to be his side or not. Of course I followed my leader. And in the end, that guy was exposed to be in the wrong. Thank God for good leaders.

I realised that our leaders voice have some kind of weight and anointing. It's like, somehow God will back them up. Like how my leader accurately prophesied over my O level and A level results accurately twice. It was like, even casual advices seem to work. Eg. like the bible says, how Samuel's words never fall to the ground.

But what if my teacher is in the wrong, what if he teaches false doctrine! Shall I still be teachable and learn? Of course not, but I made it a point never to correct them, even in public. As the saying goes, "Correction from above is just, but correction from below is rebellion." I believe in the hand of God, if a teacher is in error, God will judge him accordingly. (In fact, bible says in the day of judgement, teachers will be judged more severely than normal Christians.) Most of the leaders in the Christian world today, when they are in error, somehow God will remove them from office, so there's no need for us to worry.

Therefore, we should all aim to be great disciples to our disciplers. Pray for your pastors everyday because they pray for you!

Kelvin Guo

Unity is power

Some good news!!! Today, a Poly friend, Huiwen slide back to church! Ten years ago, she was from city harvest and due to over-dryness in her spiritual life. . . she backslided.

However, recently she was being touched by pastor kong's word last week and decided to dedicate her life back to Jesus! Praise the Lord! God really do miracles in peoples lives. . .

Today, Andy(another mentor I have from another church) and I met her up and encourage her and reaffirm her faith for her. I think what we did is very important and is actually initiatied by andy. She told us she was glad that we came and speak to her and teach her how to get back on track with God. She told me she was neglected in her past cellgrps and also when she was back with God, no one called her.

I suddenly felt that our cellgrp also face similar problems. Often when we have new friends or friends that just joined, I realised that I did not have the heart to be all out for them and support them! Often neglected them. Even towards one another, did we really show concern to one another every now and then? Such as calling one another up and ask how are we doing?

Personally, I don't do it often so I am also part of this weakest link. I know our dearest cellgrp leader did. .. he sms me last week and asked me how is my work going? I felt so glad that someone is there to ask how am I. When you receive such greetings won't you pleased too? Why not let us do show more concern to one another especially to our newcomers and old newcomers like Jason, Samuel and even Claudia.

Unity is Power! Our cellgrp really must be bonded as a living cell in the body of Christ if not our cellgrp will never grow. . . This is our weakest point i personally feel.

After the impartation of our knowledge to huiwen. . . she felt so blessed and was so on fire for God! I am pleased to see another of my close friends being on fire! It really adds oil to my existing fire for God! I felt so motivated and happy! If all of us help one another adding oil to one another spiritually or even mentally. . . .I believe all things will be added to you in 100fold!

By the way, she might be joining our cellgrp. So let us pray for her to be a strong and on fire christian. Last but not least, let us stand together and really encourage one another and be more sensitive to our fellow cellgrp members and meeting one another's needs.

Regards,
Gavin Goh

Climbing The Mountain Of Life

"Climbing The Mountain Of Life" Article by Asher Aw

I was just having dinner with a long time buddy, Jeremy, and we were on the topic of being a Christian when a particular thought crossed my mind… I asked him: “What are the significant moments in your life that kept you going on as a Christian?”

To my surprise, he said “I’m not too sure”.

I proceeded to ask him about it because getting through life, I personally believe that certain memories and events in our life form who we are, what we believe in and how we live – so it was rather surprising to know my buddy was not sure what kept him going.

To describe it in another fashion, I related to him how life is like climbing a mountain. As you get higher, you “mark” yourself climbing up… mountain climbers would take a stake and “impale” it into the solid rock/ice surface – creating an anchor.

They then latch their ropes onto that anchor and keep going. In the event they fall/slip, these anchors would hold them and secure them from falling.

So, it came as a bit of a surprise that my friend here apparently did not create his anchors for his Christian life. But as we talked, I discovered that he – unlike me – had created his anchors in movable terrain. He created anchors in people.

Interesting.

For a person like me, I am who I am today because of the events in my life that I remember, of the information I learned from people/books/circumstances. That’s what kept me going on climbing my personal mountain. If I were to slip, my memories and my knowledge which have anchored me, would keep me safe and falling to doom.

For Jeremy, it was the people whom he has met in life who were always there for him. Believing in him and persisting with him despite knowing his flaws.

So, if he were to fall… he would rely on his “anchors” of people – though it moves… it also grows.

For me, if I were to fall… I would rely on my memories of knowledge and events – not so much on people.

How about you? What are YOUR anchors in life?

During difficult times

Majority of us face difficult times at least once in our lifetime. Interestingly, some people handle the situations with great optimism, and yet there are others who are engulfed by the magnitude of their problems. The bible says in Matthew 11:28, “ Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The phrase “Come to Me” struck me hard. I realised that it is only when we come before God and we lift up our burdens and difficulties to Him that we truly trust God for ways to handle them. Although this action should come naturally, many of us tend to rely on our own strength and knowledge. This tendency is dangerous because we risk living our own lives independently of God.
I believe there are reasons why we get weary when we are in difficult situations.
1. Our faith in God is not strong enough. The bible promises us that “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” We must first not have doubts in our hearts that our problems cannot be solved. All it takes is time and strong faith. We must hold steadfast to this promise and not lose heart.

2. When we lean on our own strength, we become worn out. (I must admit I have the tendency to do so sometimes.) Perhaps this is why this verse is so relevant to me, and maybe to some of you. Let us really check if we have been too reliant on ourselves.

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.”

It says that God shall direct our paths when we learn to lean on God and not depend on ourselves. This means we will be guided and be led out of the dark times that we go through, if we only trust in the Lord! Therefore, I encourage all of you to find the answers and solutions that we need by seeking God and praying fervently.

Our strength is limited, but with God’s strength, we can become conquerors and emerge victorious at the end of the day! =)

-Eunice

yay!! its the first time i can post on this blog or any blog for that matter-mostly because of time constrains. Speaking about time, i can clearly remember something Jeremy said. Time is life. That is very true in my opinion. time is so important in our modern day life. there are many quotes from people from various fields.here's an example:
"if you love life, do not squander time, for that's the stuff time is made up of."-Benjamin Franklin(one of the founding fathers of America)
Time can make or break. our church has lasted through the past 20 years. we have lasted through the time. time MADE us stronger. time can also kill. I'm sure i don't have to elaborate on this. relationships and other stuff can be killed by time. therefore, time IS life.
"if u do not treasure a person, you will not treasure his time."-Jeremy.
There is this teacher in my school, by the name of Mr Kwok Weng Yee Paul. He is a naggy, teacher who tells stories. motivational stories. however, i learnt a lot from a simple illustration he made. this is something he said. a study carried out by some university classified countries into two types. countries that run on CLOCK time, and countries that run on EVENT time. countries that run on clock time dictate their lives on the clock.they have accurate readings on clocks in their banks. their people are always on time, be it for work or for an appointment. countries that run on event time dictate their schedule by events around them. For example, they can be late because of traffic jam that happened or being held up by something. their clocks in banks, hotels or airports are not accurate. guess what this study shown. countries that run on clock time are relatively more successful. an example is japan. while countries that run on event time are less successful. an example is Indonesia(on offense if you are in any way affected by this).
this proved that time is so important in our lives today.
lets be more conscious of the time and life of others!!!
-renyang

Spiritual Milestones

I lost count of how many times I cried during our CHC 20th anniversary last week. 20 years is a long time, thankful that I'm still here by the grace of God.

I still can remember the first time I came to church. I didn't even know it was church, my friend told me it was a "Youth Festival" so I thought it was a national day thingy for youths. I was 16 then.

Waiting at KFC opposite the old hollywood theatre, I stopped eating my food and pointed to the building and said, "woah, so many people queuing up ah. How come?". My friend just smiled and said, "Ya, later we will be inside."

Didn't understand anything I sang during praise and worship. "How come got lamb, die, lion, whats all this?" And when everybody prayed in tongues, I thought to myself, "Cheam man, I think they praying in foreign language I didn't learn".

I still remember the first sermon I heard from Pastor Kong. It's called, "Crossing the line to the other side." I was so impacted. I was hesitating all week whether or not to cut a short funky hairstyle. After the sermon, I just did it.

It's a personal spiritual milestone. My first stone. Subsequently, my first tongue, my first bible study, my first tithe, my first friend to church, my first year in church. All these are spiritual milestones.

Josh 4:5-6
And Joshua said to them: "Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'WHAT DO THESE STONES MEAN TO YOU?'"

God forbid that I should ever forget these stones, or that I should be complacent and stop placing stones in my life. Pastor says that we have not arrived yet, it is still a journey. May God continue to place landmarks in my life in the next 20 years. Amen.

The bible says in Gal 6:9 (NKJV) "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

This verse made me think quite a bit although this is not the first time I've read this verse. In fact, I have used this verse before in one of my offering messages. However, strangely, the other versions such as NIV or NLT did not mention "do not lost heart" but rather, they used "do not give up" in those versions.

So what is it about the human heart? Why is it that when we lose heart, it gives a similar meaning as we have given up?

Well, the human heart is about the only organ that knows how to move on its own. Unlike the hand/feet/hips etc, they rely on the brain sending messages to them before they are activated. However, the Human Heart pumps and pumps without any instructions from the brain.. The heart of a vertebrate is composed of cardiac muscle, an involuntary striated muscle tissue which is found only within this organ.

When I was worshipping God that day with this verse stuck in my mind, I begin to understand more about the Human Heart. See, the heart will go on pumping and pumping no matter what. It's like life will go on no matter what. At times, the heart can also pump even if the brain is not functioning. The heart speaks of a Man's ways and life.

Now, the bible says that Christ is the head. We all know that what's in the head is the brains. If Christ is the head, then the brains must be Christ's innermost part. The heartbeat of Jesus, the heart of hearts, the very intentions, thoughts, ideas, direction of God.

To function fully, the heart must be connected to the brain. That is like a man that is well connected to God, knowing His ways, His thoughts, intentions, direction, plans. This man knows not only about God but he knows God. Yea, that's a man destined for success.

There are also other scenarios, such as a man who's heart has stopped pumping. Is he dead? Certainly not. That's why doctors, can declare one to be brain dead but not heart dead. In other words, even if the heart stops pumping, the person is not necessarily dead. As long as God is alive, there's hope for man. There's hope for salvation. Some tried to kill God but on the 3rd day He rose again victoriously. Unless the heart gives up on the brain, the brain will not give up on the heart. So long as the brain is alive, there's still hope.

The bottom-line is that we must come to a point where we know the heartbeat of Christ, the thoughts of Christ, the plans, the desires, the intentions, the directions... Then only are we connected to the Head. Then only will our heart pump normally and still maintain connection to the brain and the whole body functions well.

There are people who are still existing and functioning. However, they are brain dead already as they have lost the connection to the Brain. Though they seems to still have connection to the head (still attending church) but they have lost the connection to the inner part of the head and are clueless with what God is thinking or the way God is moving. These are the brain dead...

-Clara

Strong Spiritually

As we celebrated the 20th Anniversary at the Indoor Stadium on Sunday, I can’t help but to remember God’s faithfulness and love for His church and His people. As I watched those videos which captured moments of City Harvest, I begin to tear in His presence. My heart is filled with gladness because I am part of this story. I strongly believe that the next twenty years is going to be more glorious. Like the pioneers of City Harvest shared how their lives have changed and their faithfulness towards God over the years. It is the pioneer’s spiritual tenacity that kept them planted in the House of God the past twenty years. Then, how can we stay planted in the House of God? I believe there are three ways that will help us keep our walk with God strong.

Firstly, a strong prayer life is essential in our walk with God. In 2 Chronicle 7:14, God says that “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” How can one maintain a relationship? It’s through communication. Prayer is a powerful thing, its communicating with God. Through prayer, we are able to build strong and intimate relationship with Him.

Secondly, making giving a lifestyle is essential in our walk with God. The Bible says in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This verse is both a biblical and practical verse. We will always be drawn to where we invest most of our time and finances in. Genesis 8:22 says that "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." The Kingdom of God works on the principle of sowing and reaping. Unless one sows, he will never reap. When we begin to participate and sow in the House, we are becoming part of the family and taking ownership of it.

Lastly, we need to recognize that Jesus is not just our Savior but Lord of our life. Our life is in the hand of God and God is always in the equation of our life. When we recognize the fact that Jesus is our Lord, we will begin to depend on Him in every way in our life. Everything that we have belongs to Him and every blessing comes from Him, we are just stewards of it. When Jesus is our Lord, we will not be afraid of any challenges and we will keep going because He is always in control of every situation.

I believe that by embracing some of these ways, we will keep our spiritual life strong and keep our life planted in the House of God. Indeed, those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

More dreams to be realized and more success to be celebrated.

Matthias

Batam Emerge 2009

Keep the postings rolling in! I'm loving it (=

A lot of you were wondering what happened in Batam and I told you that you would be shocked by what I did in Batam Emerge. This trip was an ok trip for me overall. I had the chance to get to know more people and know people even more. Just overshadowed by some stuff but that is the story for another time (= I will be posting some pictures of my Batam experience and you will know the area I served in.

This is one of the simpler student some of us had to do.
"The Shoulder Sit"

The more "death defying" "Shoulder Stand"

It was truly a great experience serving with the cheerleaders of our church. A fun loving, cheerful and most importantly God loving bunch of people. I never knew these stunts can be learnt in a short period of time and the whole time training with them changed my perspective towards cheerleading. Indeed they are the cheerleaders for God, the adrenaline I felt right before our turn to be on stage, I so much wanted to pass it on to the crowd out there. I feel proud with what they have done and I thank God for the opportunity to serve with them.

Like every mission trip, I feel most importantly, it is the attitude we bring that matters the most. For some of us, we may be just be amongst the crowd during the whole service, but the way we carry ourselves, the way we support the event, the way we praise, the way we worship, every little thing we do can make a difference in the lives of the people we serve. Other than the Word, the performances and helps that we bring, I believe that we want to impart these attitudes that we have to them. Bring it back home, let us carry this excellent attitude every where we go, be an influence in the marketplace. Let good attitudes be a conviction in your heart too that you truly live it out!

Cheers,
jEMk