Being At Peace

In this Sunday's message, the topic was peace. It is very relevant to what's happening these days when there are so many troubling times for people. Where do we find peace? It has been said that the peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of God.

This was greatly manifested by one painting that the speaker cited today about a family of birds in their nest on a tree while there was a this horrible storm around them. It's true that we can't avoid the trials and tribulations of life, but what God is trying to say I guess is that even in the midst of these storms, He is there for us. And if we find peace WITH God then we can gain from the peace OF God.

Humility In Abundance

I learned something really nice last Sunday. The speaker quoted the verse Philippian 4:12

"I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need."

God has given us so many things. We are so blessed. So we must be humble. God allows us to be self-sufficient as a blessing. But we should trust in Him for all things. When I say trust though, doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything. We should still act accordingly and do our jobs and stuff like that, we just should be boastful about them and think it's because we're amazing as people. If anything, we are nothing and only vessels of God. I do hope He leads me in the path He wants me to be.

Passion For The Lord

The message I heard in church today revolved mainly around David and how he had fought so hard to gather the things needed to build the temple of God. The pastor spoke of his earnest desire to build the house of the Lord. However in the end, God said He didn't want David to build his temple, but his son instead.

The pastor spoke of how this didn't dishearten David, like how most of us would probably feel. But he was a humble man and even said that he would rather be a doorman in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked (not sure if that's how it's supposed to go)

The pastor encouraged us to have as much passion as David and seek after the Lord just as he did. I pray for that kind of passion as well.

(image from Crystalinks.com)

Wrong Creed Breeds Wrong Character

The message from church today was pretty enlightening. The speaker was a Singaporean missionary who was assigned in UK and London. Didn't catch his name though but his message was very insightful.

He said that sometimes we think since we go to church often or pray a lot, we know God but actually our perception of God may be wrong. And he's actually right.

One of his examples was that many times people think that just because God is "love" doesn't mean he'll just give us our heart's desire and pamper us all the time. More often than not we prefer to see God like that instead of being the kind of God He really is which is also a God who disciplines us. We'd like to perceive God just as a messiah and savior and discount the fact that He is supposed to be Lord of our lives as well. This then leads us to turn away from the Lord when things get difficult because we are unable to accept that a God who's supposed to be the definition of "love" can do such a thing to us.

The key phrase I got from this is that the wrong perception leads to the wrong reaction which becomes part and parcel of a messed up relationship. This applies to a lot of other relationships as well - our relationships with other people, not just God. However this is most significant when we think about our relationship with God because it is the very foundation of how we deal with other people in our lives.

I'm grateful to the Lord, He sent that guy to speak in our church

(image from Angeltalk.com)