Very thankful to God for the past one month. It's really been a great joy and learning experience, because I got to experience God's grace, bless others, and learn more about myself during this time. Reminded and renewed about joy in the Lord, joy of learning, joy of living, joy of this and that... =)
Exams, Standard Chartered marathon (ok, it was 10 km lah...), doing Christmas MM... think quite a few bros and sisters have waxed lyrical about the joys of studying together, notably Huanyan the Security Guard, Guanrui the Banner Man and Flince the Mugger. Go read their blogs... I too lazy to type. Haha!
Oh, the title of this post? Read more below... ;)
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Came back earlier from doing Christmas MM with ZW at his hall room. I'm really so blessed by this dear bro - he really blessed my socks off! He offered to help me with the Christmas MM, and even sponsored the firewire cable that we needed for downloading the videos from the camera onto his computer. Wow... very touched by his eager heart to help...
We had a great time of fellowship, and I really have a lot to learn from him, besides his MM skills... his sensitivity for others' feelings, his childlike spirit even when he shares about his difficulties in various areas... (because God doesn't look for perfect people - he looks for humble people!)
Hmm... in retrospect, I think God has changed my heart in this area of taking care of younger Christians. Last time, I regarded taking care of a younger Christian as "I'm older-than-you-so-I-know-more, so come, let me teach you, you-who-know-nothing-much..."
Oh man. My dear old CL made sure that I learnt my lesson well. Thank God for Hanhui! :) I still remember what he shared with us: "Learn to enjoy people, to take delight in them. To just simply love them, enjoy their presence." And another time, he asked me, "Do you relate to them as a brother?"
Yup... think it's what Jesus would have done... the religious people of His day called Him a "friend of sinners"!
His name is Jesus, Jesus
Friend of sinners...
Think such an understanding has thus helped to transform how I see the younger ones now... to be honest, I now really love my CG people as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Really treasure their friendships, their company... And I think that is really how Jesus wants us to love one another. And I really love my shepherd too. :) I was amazed when, while sharing to Bowen some time ago about my shepherd, I found myself starting to cry. Think it really is a great blessing having a mentor who loves you enough to scold you, "because I'm worried for you."
So, what does it really mean to love one another? Because I remember a few years ago, there was this dear brother who shared about his struggle to love the brothers in the CG... he was sincerely trying his best to love others, but didn't know what it really meant to love as God would want him to love. He asked about the part about "loving others even though you don't feel very loving - isn't that being hypocritical?"
Actually, he said the question that I didn't dare say out.
This point from the book "Love Beyond Reason" really helped me understand what it means to love as Jesus would have me love... I think it's a very good test of whether you truly love the other person (especially if that person is very difficult to love!):
Love Delights in and Enjoys the One Who Is Loved
This facet has to do with the heart of the one who loves. When I love you, it is not something I do simply out of duty or obligation.
I remember hearing a Christian speaker say that you should always love your spouse with an in spite of love, never with a because of love - but who wants to be on the receiving end of that? If, when I was proposing to my wife, I had said, "Well, there's certainly nothing about you that any reasonable person could ever warm up to, but because of my noble character I will hold my nose and love you anyweay" the proposing process would not have gone nearly as well as it actually did.
No, when we love someone the mere sight of them causes our eyes to light up... When you see someone you love, it makes your heart glad.
It is very important to remember that God loves us in this way. Some Christian writers have written as if God loves us only in spite of ourselves. Of course there is plenty God has to love us "in spite of." But raggedness is not the whole story about you. As Lewis Smedes put it, it may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I'm worth dying for. We may be ragged, but we must never confuse raggedness with worthlessness.
God doesn't just love you because he has to, he loves you because he wants to. God delights in you. Of course, that doesn't mean God delights in everything you do. Your own mother doesn't do thta, if she's at all healthy. But the fact that you exist - you, your own self - is very good in God's eyes. God likes to love you.
Hope this sharing blesses you! :)
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