Promises of Strength in Times of Stress

Hi everyone, I would like to encourage everyone with verses that will help us in our times of stress and fear.

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"
Psalm 27:1

"Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord."
Psalm 46:1-3

"He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power."
Isaiah 40:29

"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous hand."
Isaiah 41:10

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."
John 14:27

"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 guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6-7

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13

"Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."
1 Peter 5:7

Rgrds,

Ruijie

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

----
My all-time fav verse for the past 3 days.

-ed-

Intentional/unintentional sin?

I just wanted to write down my thoughts after reading Numbers 15. It is about the penalty concerning unintentional sin and presumptuous sin. The chapter was suggested to me after I brought up my view that having the desire alone or having the action alone does not constitute to sinning. Numbers 15 mentioned about unintentional sin and there was punishment to that, so it may suggest that having the action itself is sinning. That got me rethink my view.

I think the sin that was mentioned in Numbers 15 was referring to those acts that violates the Ten Commandments "that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses" (Numbers 15:23). So at that point of time, if any act that was contrary to the Ten Commandments, that's sin. However, as we have already discussed in the recent Bible study, sin can be interpreted as anything that is not pleasing in the eyes of God. This goes far broader than the Ten Commandments in our present context.

I would interpret the chapter as such: In the context of the Old Testament, God has given the law to the people "as a means of defining themselves ethnically as against the 'unclean' Gentiles" (quote taken from "Encounter with God"). That was a specific set of rules at that time and that's how they automatically judged an act as sinful or not. Therefore sinning in the context of the Numbers was acting against the Ten Commandments. What Numbers 15 emphasized however, i think is the huge difference in penalty for unintentional sin and presumptuous sin. I think the focus is on the fact that something unintentional is not the cause of God's wrath. However if the sinful act is presumptuous, that really brings "reproach on the LORD" (Numbers 15:30).

On the other hand, the death and resurrection of Jesus has brought us forward to another age. We are no longer living just by the law given to the people at the time of the Old Testament, but by the grace of God, or the Spirit of God. We have also discussed that sin is more to the Ten Commandments. Therefore, how we define sinning (not sin, but committing sin) is probably also different. Maybe my suggestion that sinning is a result of both the sinful desire and the sinful act can still hold.

That's just my thoughts.

Anna

Disappointments & Failures

This morning, I was reading Luke 24:13 - 35 and I decided to blog about what I have learnt. These are the 3 main pts:

1. How can we not see Jesus in our life?
2. We can read the bible & still not see God
3. Jesus allows us to live a life of faith with deeds 

1. How can we not see Jesus in our life? 

The 2 men were downcast (v 17) with what has happened. They have so much expectation (v21). Their human perception of how things should work out did not happen. And they were disappointed.

 My thoughts:

The amazing thing for me is that they were talking to Jesus & they did not recognize him. How can it be?

 I will suggest that it is because of disappointments & failures. For me, sometimes, I get so bogged down with disappointments that I fail to see Jesus. When things do not work out as I expect it to be, I over-analyze and I become downcast like these 2 men in the bible. Often, I allow these disappointments to miss the big picture.

 This is strange despite still believing in Jesus Christ and being blessed with so much personal testimonies. 

2. We can read the bible & still not see God

 V 25 -27 shows Jesus giving a sermon or bible study. Yet, despite receiving bible knowledge (or teachings), they fail to recognize Jesus.

My thoughts:

Sometimes, certain of my experiences of QT, sermons, mirror that. 

I do receive knowledge as I listen to these sermons and read the bible. But, often, I fail to understand, i.e. I did not recognize Jesus. At this point, I will like to say that I am not referring to an extraordinary experience like a transformation or conviction. Instead, I guess I am referring to the biblical knowledge that takes into perspective of who Jesus is. More importantly, I do not want to miss the point of just getting the ‘burning hearts’ (v32) feel good factor & fail to see who Jesus is. 

3. Jesus allows us to live a life of faith with works 

After they recognize Jesus (v31), Jesus disappeared. Why did he do that? Why didn’t he stay longer? It is similar to some experiences when there is a deep conviction and, after a while, it disappears and is forgotten.

 My thoughts:

I believe that there is a purpose for this. And it is linked to the principle: “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).

 Faith without works is like saying that I can have the faith that Jesus can so easily solve our problems and I need not put in any human effort to solve it. For example, I can pray & faith that I will pass my CFA exams but if I do not work for it, then it is just faith without works. And this faith is dead.

 I believe that if Jesus deposits faith in us, he will allow the opportunity for faith to be manifested into works. The two guys in Luke displayed that. Jesus disappears after they recognize Jesus. Subsequently, in v 33, they got up and returned to Jerusalem and told that everyone that the Lord has risen. This is faith demonstrated through work.

 Conclusion

I just hope that in the busyness of my life, I will not miss out Jesus and learnt to be fruitful in the faith that Jesus has given me. 

Ed

The first lie

I found this on the net..it is quite funny especially after I recall what Ling shared on Sat.

Fortunately, i do not need to tell any lie in cell group..haa

- honest ed-

Prayer Requests

Hi everyone, here are the cell prayer requests as we shared last Fri. For those who were not able to share, please upload your prayer requests too so that the rest of the cell can pray for you. Thank you.

Amy: Seek God for guidance for the rest of the year

Billy: To allocate more time to spend with God.

Brenda: To know the gifts from God for her life.

Edmund Strength and wisdom for work and studies

Ling Ling: To look to God for answers and assurance, to spend more time with God

Sarah: To give God the better time for QT, to be able to clear work in PCC and missions before she leaves, pray for wisdom to handle her work.

Ruijie: To have the discipline to do QT and to give Him the best time, to be able to find a job.

Rgrds,

Ruijie

Jehovah Jireh

This morning, I just thought of writing a poem to God.

Jehovah Jireh

All day
His love

Long Hours
Lasting Joy

A minute
Amazing presence

Every second
His Love
endures forever!!!

------------------------

[Poetic Ed]

Smile

Through it all, God is great and His love is amazing!

-ed-

Fellowship for Friday

For our fellowship tomorrow friday, I would like us to prepare the following 2 questions to facilitate our fellowship session:

1)How has my quiet time with God been? Have I been doing things in my own strength or relying for strength and wisdom from the Lord to meet the challenges I face each day?

2)How I can improve my relationship with the Lord? Have I been spending enough time to read His word and enjoy His presence?

Please take some time to prepare as I hope that we will have a fruitful time of fellowship tomorrow. Thank you and see you :)

Ruijie

Amazing quotes

The bible is really profound and yet simple. Without a doubt, it is the best book i have ever read. With statement like the below, it has never cease to amaze me.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. - James 2:26

Amazing stuff!

-ed-

Cell Schedule for May-July

Hi everyone, here is the schedule for May-July cell meetings. As previously practiced, if you are unable to make it for the activity in the schedule, please assign someone else to takeover your role for the particular week. Thanks :)

Ruijie

The great book of James

Was reading James today & yesterday. The entire book of James is an excellent book.
It discusses true religion, true faith and true wisdom. Recommend everyone to read James.

The pts i learnt from James 1:1-18

1) Wisdom is given by God
And we can obtain Wisdom freely when we ask from God

Skills and knowlege comes through training.

2) We can ask SPECIFIC things from God.

If we do not know the clear gifts & specific things we ask of God, it may be that we are confused

3) Sin starts from a desire

Desire --> Sin --> Death

-Ed-

Christian at workplace

A quote from the notes given by Canon John Benson during the talk on "SALT + LIGHT, The Christian in the workplace" at the Easter Convention

God's Place [Mark Greene]

"The workplace is God's place...a place of opportunity - a place to express the compassion of the gospel in word and deed, to challenge non-biblical thinking and practice, to grow in faith and character and love.

God at work in us.
God at work through us.
God at work in those we work with."

Further resources given by Canon John Benson:
-Thank God it's Monday, Mark Greene, Scripture Union, 2001
-Working it out, Ian Coffey, IVP, 2008
-London Institute for Contemporary Christianity website at
http://www.licc.org.uk/engaging-with-work/

Enjoy your work!

Anna

Being a servant

I have been struggling with some emotional realisations recently and it got rather bad since the beginning of the week. It's not something new that I am experiencing. I have experienced something more or less the same a few years ago. My reponse and approach were to cry whenever I didn't have to attend to anybody. That's the easiest and most direct way of releasing your locked emotions and the most common reactions for girls.

It's more or less the same response this time. The past experience did not help me. I am stuck in the same situation and feel just as bad, even worst.

I have been reading something on serving God recently: It says we were shaped for serving God. There are a combinations of capabilities that God has equipped everyone to serve Him:

Spiritual gifts
Hearts
Abilities
Personalities
Experiences

In the catergory for experiences, the Bible says, "He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." (2 Corinthians 1:4)

That gives me one of the reasons why I am experiencing that kind of bad emotional struggle. I will have to share it and be part of my ministry to help others who face similar problems in the future. But before I can advise, I must first come out of it. I have been thinking real hard as to how this struggle can be properly addressed. I know the conventional approach won't work for me: talking to people about my problem won't solve my problems; occupying myself with a lot of activities will only keep me away from the issue for a short while. But this idea of serving God and putting my experience in use has given me a new insight. I should response to my emotional struggle by involving myself in ministry.

Serving is one of the purposes of our lives, not being served. By serving even in time when I am emotionally down, I can take my focus off myself and redirect the focus on others and on God. So instead of spending time on crying, I should probably be involved myself with serving for God. When I am down, it doesnt' mean that I cannot serve.

"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anthing done." (Eccelesiastes 11:4)

Yan