Saturday, October 31, 2009
Diligence of an Ant

Thanks Mag for the great summary!

The part of the sermon that spoke to me most was the bit about the ants. I recently started running everyday before going to work as part of my master plan to instil more discipline in my life (I usually press the snooze button at least 4 times every morning) ;P

Following God requires effort, whether it is in terms of our health, spiritual walk, or what we do at work/school/play. If any of you are struggling to be consistent about something (e.g. doing quiet time, being nice to your siblings, etc.) do let us know so that we can encourage you onwards.

In the meantime, do ask me from time to time how I've been doing with the waking up early ;P

Monday, October 26, 2009

okay! seeing that the last post is on the 30th of may, i decided to utilise this blog a little more and perhaps, by this, do a little justice to the [albeit very little space] it takes up on the Internet. so, i've decided to post up the sermon notes i took down that day during combined service. i can't exactly remember the date whereby i started taking down notes, but its helped me quite a bit. like, when im thinking of something that the subject is somehow connected to a past sermon i've heard, there's notes on that issue/matter that i can refer to. perhaps its only me, but i guess its worth trying out (: btw, those in brackets are reference verses.
[proverbs 30, 24-28, proverbs 6:6]
1. analogy of the ant.
it mainly tells us that we have to be diligent and hardworking as a believer. and that God doesn't bless laziness and it has never been in his vocabulary [proverbs 13:4] ( pardon the phrasing, i was copying about directly what he said that day )
[proverbs 10:4 ] tells us that God wants us to be diligent in the things of God and in [joshua 22:5], he tells Joshua to be as diligent as moses was.
to sum up, you have to be diligent in reading the scripture of God if you wish to grow spiritually as we can't always expect God to bless us if we are plain lazy.

2. analogy of the hyraxes ( coneys/rock badgers)
they are small and timid, but full of wisdom, and travel in groups.
this tells us about fellowship
- God will use another person to help us grow spiritually, but unfortunately, we usually leave Jesus out of our conversations during fellowship ( like yknow, they say it becomes ' fei lo ship'
( acts 2:42) our fellowship lacks the word of God.
- Jesus has to be the centre of our lives
- like the hyraxes' hiding place being in the rocks, ours is in the word of God.
Our congregation has to be strong [ i.e , united[ to guard against ' false prophets' , we have to make sure that what is preaches is according to the scripture and not believe him just because hs is charismatic etc.
therefore, the foundation that you built during fellowship with the word of God is on rock and not sand, just like how the hyraxes choose to stay safe in such a 'sturdy home'

3. analogy of the locusts
they travel in big groups and can cause great havoc to vegetation. because :
- they travel in unity
- are never divided, and act as ONE when they sweep across the fields [ e.g they don't become divided]
- stay united although they do not have a leader
psalm 133 : david speaks about unity
- there must be unity in the house of God
- pray for those around us , not criticize them. like, to err is man , but given human nature we usually are really fast to criticize others.

The glory of God would be sent over us if we're in unity. like yknow how pastor alvin [ i think] used to say that only when the church is bonded/united than only can we efficiently carry out the will of God kinda thing?
there is no lone ranger in the house of God and we have to move as one body with one goal and one wisdom

4. analogy of the spiders/lizards
- insignificant creatures but yet can be found in the grandeur of the king's palace , because it is determines [ e.g, no matter how many times you sweep away its webs it'll re-spin one again]
- we can also stand before God/ enter his kingdom by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We have to determine in our hearts those spiritual gifts with eternal values instead of earthly, and sometimes, materialistic things.
- God honours your grades as you put in effort, but there is much more than grades.

We have to determine how to enter the kingdom of God as it is only by Jesus Christ, not by our own merits etc.
- come into the presence of God instead of staying outside as he welcomes you

wealth and things like that can be destroyed all at once e.g by a tsunami but we are sustained by God's grace so that we can serve him.

P.S feel free to change /rephrase the stuff if they're somewhere inaccurate!