just wanna pen down a few thoughts before I start my studying for the day.
I just wanna say to every single cg member, past and present, a big thank you. It's not cliche in the least when I say that it's due to everyone loving God and hanging on, that has me here where i am today.
No matter whether I was ever close to a particular person - after all, God has really brought together so many different people whom I'd never have gotten to know if I hadn't joined church - every single person's backsliding, or spiritual breakthrough - they are felt throughout my spiritual life.
Came home from school - and the thoughts running through my mind were those trying to justify my giving for Arise & Build 2007. Not due to fear, but because of remarks a few friends made. I was reasoning within myself, till I stopped and recalled the one thing someone said:
The one thing I love about you City Harvest people is that you guys know who you are giving to and what you are doing all this for.
And I remember, and hold on to it, the fact that the amount I give is one that God asked of me. It's not about giving to a church at all, and even if it were, is there really room to criticize?
A silly example perhaps, but I do remember how a group of us forked out $900 to buy construction materials and go over to Thailand to build, of all things, toilets for a rural primary school. My classmates laughed at me. My dad was unwilling to fork out the money. There was always the question of reason, of how it seemed stupid to pay to serve people. But i still hold on to what I wrote in my journal back then, that we really learnt more from them than they benefitted from us.
I won't stand by anyone calling my giving stupid or attribute it to brainwashing. Looking at people actively serving on the frontline, knowing that they were heavily persecuted, but yet loving God and having joy for the blessings God has poured into their lives now - I thank God for people like this that truly testify that every promise from God is true, and that our faith is stable in God. There is no shadow of turning in Him.
I resolve: I will grow stronger and more convicted as the months wear on. The new generation of people that Pastor talks about; I don't want to just share that desire for it, I want to be one of them.
I just wanna say to every single cg member, past and present, a big thank you. It's not cliche in the least when I say that it's due to everyone loving God and hanging on, that has me here where i am today.
No matter whether I was ever close to a particular person - after all, God has really brought together so many different people whom I'd never have gotten to know if I hadn't joined church - every single person's backsliding, or spiritual breakthrough - they are felt throughout my spiritual life.
Came home from school - and the thoughts running through my mind were those trying to justify my giving for Arise & Build 2007. Not due to fear, but because of remarks a few friends made. I was reasoning within myself, till I stopped and recalled the one thing someone said:
The one thing I love about you City Harvest people is that you guys know who you are giving to and what you are doing all this for.
And I remember, and hold on to it, the fact that the amount I give is one that God asked of me. It's not about giving to a church at all, and even if it were, is there really room to criticize?
A silly example perhaps, but I do remember how a group of us forked out $900 to buy construction materials and go over to Thailand to build, of all things, toilets for a rural primary school. My classmates laughed at me. My dad was unwilling to fork out the money. There was always the question of reason, of how it seemed stupid to pay to serve people. But i still hold on to what I wrote in my journal back then, that we really learnt more from them than they benefitted from us.
I won't stand by anyone calling my giving stupid or attribute it to brainwashing. Looking at people actively serving on the frontline, knowing that they were heavily persecuted, but yet loving God and having joy for the blessings God has poured into their lives now - I thank God for people like this that truly testify that every promise from God is true, and that our faith is stable in God. There is no shadow of turning in Him.
I resolve: I will grow stronger and more convicted as the months wear on. The new generation of people that Pastor talks about; I don't want to just share that desire for it, I want to be one of them.
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