- Jesus Is In The Centre of His Community
- Jesus' Community Prevents Spiritual Drift
- Jesus' Community Allows Us To Be Real
Wow. V timely, 'cos was fasting and praying for my CG and for our friends who are coming for tomorrow's movie event at Nexus.
And also the prophecy during the worship - I still have a lovely lingering memory of that time of worship - how lovely, how wonderful it is to worship God! :)
The prophecy from 2 Chronicles... to humble ourselves and pray to Him, then will He hear from heaven and heal our land... that God was encouraging us who have a burden for some people who are not meeting up regularly for fellowship, to keep seeking Him in prayer... to grow in a bigger heart of compassion for them, that we may pray even more.
And Isaiah 42:9! :D
See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you."
The prophecy, that God is telling us that there is going to be a new era for our region. And He is inviting us to seek His face, to seek Him for the announcement of new things yet to come, that He will declare in advance to us!
It really is very exciting! :D
And thank God also for HQ's sharing with me. I learnt from his brotherly advice - and after some thinking and further asking, I learnt that observing alone isn't enough - in order to make sense of all the incoming "data"...
E.g. if I observe someone isn't looking very happy, I can do a mental "checklist" to ask myself what's the possible reason that he/she isn't looking very happy. If after exhausting the "checklist" systematically, having thought through, then perhaps if the situation and timing is right, I can ask the person how he/she is feeling.
It was a really helpful piece of advice to me, because when I do observe, I look with my eyes, but can't immediately understand what exactly is happening. So I tend to ask others around me what's going on. Honest - that's how my mind really works. For me, I have to burn a lot of energy to keep my eyes deliberately focused and my ears to listen... it IS very physically and mentally tiring. LOL. So I don't particularly enjoy large gatherings... noisy situations literally make me feel lost and confused a lot.
A very interesting analogy that HQ used was this: when you do a technical troubleshooting problem, you systematically plow through a checklist of potential issues. Likewise, you do the same when you observe external situations... be it social or administrative or whatever else. Or solving problems on the spot. It'll help me rely less on others in coming up with solutions, thus training me to be more independent. Not that I must, but that it'll help me be more effective for God and for myself and others when I learn to think on my own feet.
And also, his advice helped me realize one thing: no wonder I struggle with debugging! Because I don't use a checklist to help me troubleshoot systematically.
I often come up with very imaginative reasons for the bug:
"Hmm... I suspect... it's a non-deterministic memory synchronization timing issue."
"Aww. The underlying software framework must have a problem. So not my program."
"Duh! It's the compiler itself!"
"That's not a bug - it's a feature!"
"Hardware fault? Maybe the hamster inside died..."
And it is important, especially now that I'm in the wide, wide world of working adults. And in the Adults ministry, realistically speaking, the men, more often than not, are expected to be more stable, more problem-solving than the women. Women are given more freeway to be emotional, etc... but if you're a guy... even if you are the emotional type, it's just not the best that a guy can be.
Looking, hoping and praying for new growth in this area of my life for Christ... growth in maturity, especially as a growing man of God! Amen! :D
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