Day 36

No, this is not strategy 36 which says to win is to run and fight another day. This is PDL day 36, a reminder for us that we have a mission to accomplish. In fact, it's nearly Mission Impossible, to go into the whole world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

So remember, you're Tom Cruise now! We're in Mission Impossible: The Great Commission!

Anyway, thought I shared a sentence I read today:

One problem long-term Christians have is that they forget how hopeless if felt to be without Christ.

How true is that! We always rely on ourselves, our families, our friends, etc but we're hopeless without Christ. We need to wake up and be sensitive towards Christ's presence in our lives.

Do you feel it?

Do you have what it takes?

If not, be afraid, be very afraid................you'll fail!

Good news is, it's not too late and please don't apply strategy #36 from Sun Zi Bing Fa.
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This is a posting from our cell group blog.

Our CG materials 13/9/08 - Running the race

Last Saturday, I had the honour to lead the 3W of the CG, thanks to our dear leader, Bick Seng! Haven't done it for quite a while now. I didn't have too much time to prepare for it as I was busy with other "annoying" things.

Anyway, just to summarize what had been brought up:

• Spiritual journey towards a better relationship with God is like a Marathon race.
• Each of us should participate in the race, not just be a spectator. In other words, "Kay leh fay"
• Before we start the journey, we need to:
  
  1. Know who am I - understand our weakness, admiting our sins
  2. Know who God is - knowing & experiencing God's character
  3. Know what God wanted me to do - get instructions before we start
  4. Experiencing God's power - building on small victories to build faith & confident
  5. Have support from others - Peer support is essential

1. Know who am I - understand our weakness, admiting our sins
   - If we don't know who we really are, how do we know whether we need any help or why do we need to be submissive or respectful to a Higher Authority?
   -For an athelete, it's important to know his ability, strength and weakness before competing in a race. Only then, he can ensure a better strategy to win the race
   
   
2. Know who God is - knowing & experiencing God's character
   - If we don't know God well enough, how are we supposed to sacrifice our lives for Him?
   - If you don't love your partner or know him/her well enough, are you going to risk your life protecting it just because he/she is technically your partner?
   - We need to experience God's characthers, not just know it by theory.
   - For an athelete, he needs to know who is he running for? Who is the country that he loves? Without it, where will the determination to succeed comes from?
   
   
3. Know what God wanted me to do - get instructions before we start
   - Often we read in the bible, the prophets are very lucky to have God whispering or telling them what to do straight up front
   - Now a days, you can hardly hear anything so direct. Most communication or revelations are from bible, words of mouth and other happenings.
   - We have to be close to God to know how authentic it may be most of the times.
   - We shared about God's plan for our lives
   - Do not walk ahead of God, walk with God
   - It's very hard practise, especially for us that prefers everything to be done quick & fast
   - For an athelete, in teams event, they are team orders in order to bring victory to the team. Individual success is least important. Likewise for CG, we need to peform as a group, not individual.
   
   
4. Experiencing God's power - building on small victories to build faith & confident
   - No champion is born without much hard works prior
   - Before we can achieve great things, we need to achieve small victories
   - Don't expect to be like Moses everyday to lead Isreal out of Egypt, open the Red Sea, etc.
   - Be realistic, raise the bar each time you have achieved something
   
   
5. Have support from others - Peer support is essential
   - Can we live as a lone ranger these days? Some yes, most no.
   - The 2C CG is designed to help all members to run the race together
   - 2C CG ensures everyone obtained success, rather than individuals
   - Covenants are followed up

Our 2C CG has definetely improved when compared to just about 1 month ago. We have more in-depths sharing, more encouragements, more breakthroughs, and more spiritually disciplined members.

We also had the opportunity to combined with Oliver's 2C CG last Saturday to distribute flyers, "Zhong xin", etc to the people of Melb. Very good experience. Our CG has been stagnant and distance itself from reaching out. It's good to see that we are willing to take the first step in reaching out again. Hope it continues!

We had guests last Saturday as well. Brother David & Sister Esther, who joined us yesterday. They are elders who are both disabled, however, they look a lot more cheerful than most of the people we ever saw! They were promoting the Christmas gift that Uncle Japhy promoted last year, i think it's called "yi chou kan" or something. It costs $5.00. Immeditately, our group decided to purchased a huge number of gifts to give to others.

Amazing Saturday I would say. Looking forward for more.