Are you crazy for spiritual gifts?

Many people have an idea of if they received a prophecy saying that they have this or that spiritual gift, then they will have those spiritual gifts; if they never receive any, then, it is too bad, they have none. I think this is a myth that we need to bust it. Actually we didn't see any evident in the Bible says so. But the Bible did ask us to EARNESTLY DESIRE spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12 : 31; 14 : 1).
This morning as the pastoral team are praying for the church, God spoke to me about spiritual gifts. If you want any of the spiritual gifts listed at 1 Cor 12 : 7-10, you just need to desire it.
I ask the Lord how to desire? He then shows me an example of how a youth crazily desire to have an IPhone or PSP. Have you ever seen one? I have. They will talk about it with their friends, go to the shop to look at it, tried it, search the Internet for the info, find out the functions and literally memorize every features. If their friend got it, they will admire the friend and ask the friend to show them or let them play it. They will bargain with their parent for it, do some part time job to earn extra money in order to get it, so on and so for...
That is how you should desire for spiritual gifts! Talk about it passionately with God and your friends, ask God for it, find out what and how it function and go to places where you can see it been operated, ‘shop’ it in the Internet – well, what I mean is, search the Internet for the info, see for yourself from YouTube the video clips about the operation of those gifts..... Then go ahead and try it, use it, just like the youth that will not stop playing his friend PSP once it is in his hand.
Dear fellow brothers and sisters let us pursue love, and crazily desire after spiritual gifts. If you are passionate about it, let's start shopping! (below is a link that you may not want to miss)
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkxF8eHePzs

We need you

As a pastor, I want to know what success means. I believe as a member in the church we all need to know what it means to be fruitful as a believer of Christ and as a church as well.
How do you define success in ministry? Recently I found the discussion on this topic at http://www.originsproject.org/ to find out how younger pastors are defining (and redefining) success. They said success is…
· When a church moves from being a fortress from the world to being the hope of the world
· When servanthood organically emerges from your community
· When nobody leaves the church because a guest is on the patio smoking a cigarette
· When you have to expand your new believers ministry
· When the city government calls and asks for your help to solve a local problem
· When modern and postmodern Christian sub-culture lingo is completely absent from your service
· When an increasing percentage of your community engages in worship, incarnational outreach, and love for the less lovely
· When your ministry team can tell stories of God’s undeniable work in the people they know on a weekly basis
· When your community is growing in both depth and width – growing deeper in knowledge and love of God and sharing what they learn with others so the church can’t help but grow
· When in your corporate worship you faithfully preach the whole of God’s Word including the law and the sweetness of the Gospel
· When lives are transformed
· When you celebrate the Sacraments in all their richness and meaning, following the institution of Jesus to his disciples
· When people are increasingly living their lives in joyful response to the Gospel, including loving and serving others, giving sacrificially, and being passionate about seeing others know Jesus
I found the points that they said were right. My fellow members, we need to think and look into our life and see are we contributing to the success of our church? If not, maybe it is time we ask God to change us, you are the one that God wants to use to be a light to our community.

The Ten ''Can''-mandments

Recently I got from my email an article that I found it worth sharing. This is how it goes:

"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13 NIV).

So often we think of commandments as a list of don'ts. Instead of focusing on what we can't do, let's start looking at what we can with this list of ten "can"-mandments!

1. Instead of thinking, "It will never fly," think, "Through God's strength, it's worth the try!"

2. Replace the thought, "It won't work," with faith that, with God's strength, it will work!

3. When someone says, "It's never been done before," respond by saying, "That means God's giving us the opportunity to be the first."

4. "What if we fail?" What if we fail to try, knowing God says we can do everything through Him who gives us strength?

5. "We don't have the money." Where God guides, he provides so that we can do everything he has called us to do.

6. "We don't have the time!" Perhaps God is telling us to re-evaluate our priorities as we rely upon his direction and strength.

7. "We don't have the expertise." Maybe not, but we can learn as God directs our path.

8. "It's been tried before." But we're wiser now because we know we can do everything when we rely on God's strength instead of our own.

9. If someone says, "There are so many problems with it," respond by saying, "Yet, there are so many possibilities when we're trusting God instead of ourselves."

10. Instead of saying, "It's not working out," say instead, "Let's try it one more time, but this time focused on God and the truth that we can do this through Him who gives us strength."

"Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse" (Philippians 4:8 MSG).

Ordinary people, Extraordinary God!

I love testimony, it fuels my heart, refreshes my soul, it makes me walk this journey of faith with songs and laughers.

“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10b)

Recently I met a quite lady in a Christian gathering. I introduced myself had a casual chat, then find out how she got to know the Lord. A treasure of goodie flow from her mouth.
I was delighted. I can’t wait to share her story to as many as I could. Her name is Pauline. Just like any other modern Chinese, she called herself a free thinker. She married a Roman Catholic, and went to church with him. All she knew from the church was rosary and the ritual of Hail Mary. Life seems fine for her until she was pregnant with her second child. At her one month pregnancy, she was infected with German measles (rubella) – an acute virus that is damaging to the fetus when occurring in early pregnancy. After going through some tests, the doctor advised her to consult a gynecologist. She was told by the gynecologist that if she carried on the pregnancy, the child was at risk for growth retardation; mental retardation; malformations of the heart and eyes; deafness; and liver, spleen, and bone marrow problems. This gynecologist happen to be a Christian, after explaining that to her he advised her if she wanted to continue the pregnancy, she should pray to the Creator of this universe for a miracle. He gave her two days to make her decision.

Pauline went back with a heavy heart and was too distress to break the bad news to anyone. She looked up to heaven, in her heart she thought, if there is a Creator of the universe, than, He must be in heaven. She cried out in tears to Him without knowing who He is, she even promise Him that if the baby is born healthy, she will find out who He is and will seek Him the rest of her life. After the sincere cry to God, suddenly a sense of confidence came into her heart. The next day, she went to the gynecologist, and told him that she wanted to continue the pregnancy. The gynecologist then advised her that she needed to pray to the Creator of heaven and earth daily for the baby. She obeyed like a child and carried on the pregnancy.

Everything went well until the seventh months. As she read from the news paper of a case where a couple were sued in court because they accidently cause the death of their baby - a defected child, who was blind and having heart problem due to German measles the mother had during the pregnancy. This news once again shocked her heart and fear crept in immediately. With fear, she confided to her friend. She was reprimanded because of the risk she took, putting herself and the child in danger.

Nowhere to seek comfort, once again she turn to the gynecologist, and he continued to encourage her to trust in God and shared with her 2 Timothy 1:7 that God does not give her a spirit of fear but of power and love and sound mind. He asked her to meditate on this word daily and asked for the spirit of power, love and sound mind to fill her heart. This verse comforted her heart, and she clung on to those words for the next two months.

All her trust in God was not in vain. When the baby was born the Lord, gave her a sign – the baby eyes kept turning from right to left and pout right and left as thought he was telling her that “Mom, don’t worried I can see and I can speak.” The nurse congratulated her that the baby was born healthy. Pauline insisted that they should double check and was confirmed that he was totally normal.

When she went back home, she was so thankful to this Creator of heaven and earth she remembered her promised. So she went to ask the gynecologist who this Creator is and found out that His name is Jesus. She then was told that in order to receive Him, she just needed to do the ABC step – Accept, Believe, and Confess. With the Catholic background, she couldn’t believe that it was so simple. Since she has promise the Lord to seek Him, she took the Bible that was given to her and read. One day, when she read Revelation 3: 20, the verse jumped out from the Bible touching her heart. She now understands that the Lord was knocking at her heart and all she needed to do was to open up her heart to receive Him. Finally, she said the sinner prayer that the gynecologist taught her and received Jesus into her heart.

It was difficult for her when she announced the news to her husband that she is a Christian, and will stop doing all the ritual that she used to do. With the strong conviction in her heart and gratitude she continues to seek the Lord till today.

A Christmas Poem

Jesus is the Gift that perfectly fits every heart,
and it is with His love that all new life start.
He came on Christmas day in a manger no one know,
the Child grew into a Man our sin and shame He bear as His own.
On the cross His blood drop like a scarlet ribbon wrapped around the gift,
this greatest gift of all God offer to you so that you may live.
So each year as Christmas comes let’s remember what He’s done,
and receive this perfect Gift – God’s one and only Son.

Communication

Recently I went for a haircut. I told the hair dresser that I wanted to cut my hair at shoulder length, and he asked me is it short? I answered yes. I thought that he understood what I said, and as usual, I picked up a magazine, happily began reading it, have some light chit chat with him and let the hair dresser do his job. After awhile, I felt something was not right. Looking up at the mirror, I was shock that he cut my hair so short. Finally it turned out to be short hair and not shoulder length.

This experience reminds me of what I learnt about poor communication. We make a lot of assumptions when talking with others; we assume that people understand the meaning of what we are saying. The fact is everything people hear, that includes us, go through a filter. in our mind. This filter is determined by our past experiences and our unique personality. As a result, we may not be actually hearing what the other person is really saying. No wonder the Bible tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. If we do the first two, we can avoid the third.

Another area that causes miscommunication is presumption – we think we know it all. Thus we become impatient, then we interrupt and jump to conclusions

“He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame” Proverbs 18:13 (NIV).

Hurts in our life can also cause us to miscommunicate. When we feel hurt, we are defensive and unteachable (it is the same with pride). We build an invisible wall around us so that we will not be hurt again. So subconsciously, you set up a "spy camera", all your focus is to watch out for another possible attacker that is going to hurt you again.

Since that the Bible advices us to be slow to speak and quick to listen, I believe the key to good communication is listening. All of us do hear, but not many of us master the skill of listening. In order to listen, we must not come to a conclusion or worst, judge quickly. It is so, especially when you hear something you disagree with. Let people finish their story; you may want to clarify by asking questions such as, “What you say about is …. and what I think you actually said is….”. Don’t evaluate until you have heard and comprehended it all. To do this is quite a challenge (especially for me! That is why I choose not to talk on a serious matter when I am tired). After listening, you try your best to tell the person what they have just told you before you talk about what you plan to talk. By doing this, it will save you a lot of trouble from saying something that the other person didn’t ask for. Finally, as you listen, do not just focus on the words, be sympathetic, listen with your heart and eyes, try to understand the emotion behind the words, the facial expressions and body language.

Wow! What a skill to learn! Don't feel bad if after you read this and the next moment you see yourself make the mistake. We all have a whole lifetime to learn this skill. Be gracious to yourself, smile and enjoy life.

After saying all these, I want to direct you to your quite time. Prayer and reading Bible as all of us know is simply communicating with God. At this moment, let us take some time to think - when we pray and when we read the Bible, are we communicating with God by listening to Him (since the key to great communication is listening) or are we doing all the talking, then read the Bible without involving our heart, and before God can say anything, we end with In Jesus’ Name. Amen. : )

“Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” Mark 4:24-25 (NLT)

Try to practice all this communication skill in your quite time and I can assure you, your quite time will never be dry again.

Driving In Foriegn Land

Have you ever driven in the foreign Land? Or have you tried to drive to a new place?

When I first drove in Singapore, it was a nervous experience (especially you were driving your senior pastor car and had him sit next to you!). I would study the road map, tried to memorized some landmarks before I hit the road. I would ask the person who known the road well to direct me. Listen to his instruction while driving and asking him from time to tome just to make sure I was heading to the right direction.

After years of going to Singapore, I realized that I have no problem driving there. I started to understand their road behavior, recognised many roads and going places.

This remind me of our spiritual journey. God wants us to go deeper and deeper with Him. In order to do that we must be willing to go into the unknown. Abandon our sense of security and self confidence; be humble, study His Word (map book), and ask the help of the Holy Spirit (the person who sit next to me to in the car to guide me) moment by moment and put our total trust in Him to guide us to the new territories. When He says turn right we turn right, turn left, we turn left without hesitation. If not, we may miss the junction to our destiny and have to detour (thanks God, He is gracious! When we make mistakes, He is patience to guide us back to the right track). This way of living our life is challenging but exciting. And it is also very rewarding. God will give us many good surprises along the way!

Many have limit their walk with God base only on their past experience and never dare to venture into the new. To live life this way is like me driving from my house to church office. I don't need a map book, and definitely not another person to guide me along the way! It is easy, comfortable, predictable but lack of life. That is not what God makes you and me for! In our Father's house, there are many places and many rooms for us to explore into. Don't just stay at where you are.

It is good that we can ask ourselves these questions from time to time:
1. Is our walk with God has become so comfortable that we no longer need to refer to His Rhema Word for guidance and the Holy Spirit to come alongside us?
2. Are we so comfortable and so contented with what we have, when the Holy Spirit asks us to explore into the new, we put a deaf hear to His gentle whisper?
3. Do we feel contented with the touch of God that we once experienced and lost our appetite for more?

If we want to walk this journey with God, we need to be willing to go where He want to go. In order to do that we need to be willing to explore to the unknown; have His Spirit as our constant Guide and His Word as our road map. Let our past experience be an assurance for us of His faithfulness and not a monument or the measuring stick to judge our future experience. Our past experience of God should not limit us but to encourage us to move deeper into God. Neither should we use it to judge other who may have a difference view or experience. God is so great. No single person in this world is able to know all of Him.

Furthermore, there are times, God may lead two difference person to reach a same destiny with two difference routes. There are 5 ways for me to take to return from office to my house. At difference times and difference occasions, I will take a difference way. I use my common sense and judgement to determine which way can help me to reach my home faster. When I need to drop by certain place to get something on my way back, I will use difference road. I think this is how God thinks, He wants all of us to reach our destiny, but He know better which way is the best for each individuals. So don't be upset if you find the way God leads you is difference from others. Just remember to bring along your road map (His Word) and have a Guide (the Holy Spirit) with you. then you will surely reach where He wants you to be.