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CHRIST, THE TRUE LIGHT OF LIFE
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CHRIST, THE TRUE LIGHT OF LIFEFollowing the Right LightDate: 5/2006.101 ACC English - 1 April 2007 Heb 12:1-3 31 August 2008 DCFC English - Heb 12:1-3 Heroes of the Faith: Run the Marathon of Faith 2009 OK Retreat - Heb 12:1-3 Faith 2 Finish: Faith is a marathon 2011 FCCD Retreat – Heb 12:1-3 Faith 2 Finish: The Christian Life is a Marathon In the army, we used to train at night. Each time the platoon goes out, we walk in rows, about 10 feet apart. When the commander in front stop, the rest of us need to stop too and hide in the bush - not just stand around. Sometimes, it’s very dark so we can’t see each other. What we do is that we use little cylum straws. And in the darkness we just follow the light before us. When it moves, we move, when it stops we stop. The problem is we get tired after training 2-3 days in a row. And when we stop, sometimes you just fall asleep without realizing. The next moment you wake up, the light is gone, so you have to run ahead to find it. Once, I fell asleep. Suddenly I woke up and could not see the light. I panicked and went forward, then saw the little light and was relief. As I followed that light, it appeared strange. I followed it for almost 5 min then realized that this light was going around in circles. Finally, I ran up to it and realized that it was not the cylum straw behind my buddy, but a fire fly. So I followed the wrong light and left the right path. In our lives, we need a light to guide us in the right path - Christ. But there are many false lights that beckons us to follow them, if we do, we will leave the right path. CHRISTIAN, CALLINGCalling – SelfApr 24 2011 DCFC English Worship – [The Master & The Disciple] Luke 24:28-36 Sept 3-5 2011 RCCC Retreat [Renewing our first love for Christ] Renewing our vision of the Cross Luke 9:18-27 23-25 Sept 2011 ACBC Missions Conference (Mandarin) – Matt 28:18-20 The Great Commission 20 April 2014 – Evangel Morning & Xiyang – Mark 16:1-8 Go Shout it on the mountain! Jan 31 2016 QBC Chinese Phil 3:7-11 – ‘No-Fool’ Passion: God centered passion Feb 28 2016 QBC English Phil 3:7-11 – ‘No-Fool’ Passion: God centered passion 01 Oct 2017 QBC English/Chi - [Condition of Discipleship] Matt 8:18-21 I remember the day I accepted Christ. I was at this IV-retreat as a freshman in college. There were only two non-Christians there and I was one of them. But after a culmination of struggling with the purpose and meaning of life and reading up and I guess God just working in my heart, I was challenged by the room-mate they gave me, if I wanted to accept Christ and I did. Incidentally, this room-mate later became my small group leader and he currently works for Coke as a Financial Controller at their Thailand office. He recently also had a set of boy-girl twins through IVF. Anyway, that morning, during the morning worship, I remembered telling God, “Why is it that these Christians around me are so emotional and they seem to feel you and experience you as if you are next to them. But I don’t feel anything. When I accepted you, I didn’t feel anything or hear anything! Nothing! Is this real? Or are they just emotionally weak?” I prayed, “Lord, let me experience you!” In the midst of the worship, I just felt this stirring in my heart and I grasp what a wretched sinner I was. Then the first tear trickled down my cheeks and then the dam broke. I told you I don’t cry well! Snoot & saliva and the guy beside me, someone I barely knew, put his arms around me and I just cried. God became real! Then the pastor spoke on John 21 and my heart was strangely warm. Perhaps that was what these disciples of Emmaus felt when Jesus spoke to them. I realized that I was like Peter in John 21 and I responded and told God that I wanted to feed his sheep. It was in that moment then I felt called to full time ministry. This is another story that perhaps I will have an opportunity to share in future. But in that moment, not only was my mind informed, but my heart was touched. Allow the message of the Cross to burn in our hearts.
Feb 28 2016 QBC English Phil 3:7-11 – ‘No-Fool’ Passion: God centered passion March 19 2013
“I’m still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith… In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer Perhaps like Bonhoeffer, we need to return to face reality. In so doing, we bear our crosses and we would need to depend on God. Returning to Singapore is a cross to bear, but it is only by completely living in this world and not running away from reality that we learn faith. Isn’t this what I have desired all my life? I think it is a clear message from God. “Feed my lambs… Tend my sheep… Feed my sheep.” John 21:15-17 When my eyes caught these words, a chill ran down my spine. This passage means a lot to me. It was through this passage that God first called me on the day of my conversion. It was this passage that I asked God to call me three times and He did – once while reading a magazine on Bus 199 in NTU, another time was from the sharing of a Korean Student from FEBC. I am worried that I would not have ministry opportunities to preach and teach God’s word. But this is God’s assurance that He still has use for me. It is what He called me to do. Just as He assured me that he wants to use me to feed the 500 thousands as I was asked to transfer to the Chinese congregation to help them, now He tells me that He has use for me in Singapore. Ora et Labore “Pray & Work” from the Rule of St Benedict Pray and work. That’s what I need. Work hard, but pray harder. I need to work hard to finish off my work here, with my dissertation and all. I need to work hard when I return to Singapore, but I need to pray more. More dependence of God. “You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment” Annie Dillard We were made to give voice to God’s work in our lives. To tell others and to testify with our lives how God is moving in our lives. How He astonishes us. This is the purpose of my life. What I desired more than anything else is to experience that God is real, that He is alive and working in my life. More than anything else, I have experienced this reality. This is what my life is about – Him! Experienced such comfort and peace about my decision to go home. Focus on EarthDate: 10/2007.101 Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching - Leadership Journal - Ed Rowell P73 (Stephen Nordbye) On Day Six of the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts needed to make a critical course correction. If they failed, they might never return to Earth. To conserve power, they shut down the onboard computer that steered the craft. Yet the astronauts needed to conduct a thirty nine second burn of the main engines. How to steer? Astronaut Jim Lovell determined that if they could keep a fixed point in space in view through their tiny window, they could steer the craft manually. That focal point turned out to be their destination - Earth. As shown in the 1995's hit movie, Apollo 13 for 39 agonizing seconds, Lovell focused on keeping the earth in view. By not losing sight of that reference point, the three astronauts avoided disaster. Scripture reminds us that to finish your life mission successfully, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2) CHRISTIAN, CALLING Super Bowl 1993Date: 10/2007.101 Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching - Leadership Journal - Ed Rowell P75 (Steve Chandler) Tom Friends of the NY Times asked coach Jimmy Johnson what he told his players before leading the Cowboys onto the field for the 1993 Super Bowl. "I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the floor, everybody there would walk across it and not fall because our focus would be on walking the length of that board. But if I put that same board 10 stories high between two buildings only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling." Johnson told his players not to focus on the crowd, the media or the possibility of falling, but to focus on each play of the game as if it were a good practice session. The Cowboys won the game 52-7. A Christian must not focus on what people think but only on what is excellent or praiseworthy. (Philippians 4:8)
Date: 6/2006.101 More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks P49 A flock of wild ducks were flying in formation, heading south for the winter. They formed a beautiful V in the sky and were admired by everyone who saw them from below. One day, Wally one of the wild ducks in the formation spotted something on the ground that caught his eye. it was a barnyard with a flock of tame ducks who lived on the farm. They were waddling around on the ground, quacking merrily and eating corn that was thrown on the ground for them every day. Wally liked what he saw. "It sure would be nice to have some of that corn," he thought to himself. "And all this flying is very tiring. I'd like to just waddle around for a while." So after thinking it over a while, Wally left the formation of wild ducks, made a sharp dive to the left and headed for the barnyard. He landed among the tame ducks and began to waddle around and quack merrily. He also started eating corn. The formation of wild ducks continued their journey south, but Wally didn’t care. "I'll rejoin them when they come back north in few months," he said to himself. Several months went by and sure enough, Wally looked up and spotted the flock of wild ducks in formation, heading north. They looked beautiful up there. And Wally was tired of the barnyard. It was muddy and everywhere he waddled nothing but duck doo. "It's time to leave," said Wally. So Wally flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne. But he had gained some weight from all corn-eating, and he hadn’t exercised his wings much either. he finally got off the ground but he was flying too low and slammed into the side of the barn. He fell to the ground with a thud and said to himself, "Oh well, I'll just wait until they fly south in a few months. Then I'll rejoin them and become a wild duck again." But when the flock flew overhead once more, Wally again tried to lift himself out of the barnyard. He simply didn't have the strength. Every winter and every spring, he saw his wild duck friends flying overhead and they would call out to him. But his attempts to leave were all in vain. Eventually Wally no longer paid any attention to the wild ducks flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. He had, after all, become a barnyard duck. Application: Sometimes we get tired of being wild ducks - followers of Jesus Christ. It’s not always easy to be obedient to God and to discipline ourselves to hang in there for the long haul. When we are feeling that way, that’s when Satan tempts us to "fall out of formation" and to join the barnyard ducks - the world. But look what happened to Wally. He thought he would just "check it out" for awhile and then leave when he wanted to. But he couldn't do it. Sin is like that. Sin is a trap and it has a way of changing us into people we don’t even want to become. Eventually we lose touch with who we really are - the sons and daughters of the Most High. We become barnyard ducks. Let us focus on things above and not things below. God has called us to fly, to soar, let us not settle for waddling.
Date: 6/2006.101 5 Oct 2008 DCFC English "We have a dream..." Matt 28:18-20 Dreaming God's dream 23-25 Sept 2011 ACBC Missions Conference (Mandarin) – Matt 28:18-20 The Great Commission Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks P140 On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was no more than a nut and there was only one boat; but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea. With no thought for themselves, they went out day and night, tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to be associated with the station and give their time, money and effort to support the work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life saving station grew. Some of these new members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those who were saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Not the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as a sort of a club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration and there was a memorial life boat in the room where the club initiations were held. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some of them were foreigners. The beautiful new club was in chaos. Immediately, the property committee hired someone to rig up a shower house outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside. At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's lifesaving activities because they felt and pointed out that they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. A small number of members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. The small group's members were voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. They did. As the years went by, however, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old station. it evolved into a club and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters but most of the passengers drown. Application: As disciples of Jesus, our primary task is to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). To put it another way, we are to go and save lives. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget our purpose. We need to recover our passion for lifesaving. We need to be doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22)
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