Who Other than Jesus Christ?

I promised a lot of you that I will have this post up in the last couple weeks, but since I have been having a crazy journey, I hope you can all understand. 

About a month ago, I was struggling with many things in my life.
The situation is still haunting my sleep away to this day but I have learned to deal with this; to remind myself what the most important thing in my life is.

I have struggled with the sin that is within me just wanting to present itself to the world.
The work of God, rewired, and altered to constantly sin and basking in the attention of own own self not the creator. 
This is the struggle that I faced. 

Hurting others, and hurting myself in the process is nor healthy nor glorifying.

With this constant guilt and pain that I was facing from years of struggling with this sin, I had hit rock bottom. 

God had broken me down.

I no longer felt the need to cover up, and hide in the mask of this self-created image.

It made me feel desperate need for something more. 
Something more powerful than all the judging eyes among the world, something more merciful that all the burdens in the world can be healed.

Who other than Jesus Christ?

God planted this hymn "I Surrender All" in my desperate need.

1. All to Jesus I surrender;
   All to Him I freely give;
   I will ever love and trust Him,
   In His presence daily live.
   • Refrain:
     I surrender all,
     I surrender all;
     All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
     I surrender all.
2. All to Jesus I surrender;
   Humbly at His feet I bow,
   Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
   Take me, Jesus, take me now.
3. All to Jesus I surrender;
   Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
   Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
   Truly know that Thou art mine.
4. All to Jesus I surrender;
   Lord, I give myself to Thee;
   Fill me with Thy love and power;
   Let Thy blessing fall on me.
5. All to Jesus I surrender;
   Now I feel the sacred flame.
   Oh, the joy of full salvation!
   Glory, glory, to His Name!
6. The amazing thing is that the Grace gives us this second chance. I need to know that my salvation has nothing to do with what deeds I do, or what I make out of my life. 
8. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
   

   - Galatians 2:20 
9. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
10. - Ephesians 1:7-8
11. 
    

    

    1. 
       Through Jesus Christ, my saviour, I am redeemed. I am just glad that this redemption is not out of my own good, but the good of Christ. 
    2. 
       

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Body of Church, Body of Christ - Part 3

It sure has been a long time since I wrote my last blog.

Love-packed month with GKYM, Mosaic Retreat, and all the other things that have been going on in my life. I guess I have not had a chance to sit in front of a computer and write what I feel about the body of the church.

This will my last series on Body of Church, Body of Christ.

To summarize the Body of the Church, it is necessary to remember that church is not a physical place. Church is spiritual, church is behavioural, church is sometimes abstract. The church in the bible can only be explained by the people, those who follow Christ and put Christ as the head.

With this in mind, Christians are given the opportunity to love, to be passionate, to have fellowship, and to train together. 

One member from Hillsong United said this at the concert I recently went to. He talked to the congregation about salvation.

He showed how the idea of Christian life is not as hard as people think. This convicted me deeply. 
So many people in the world are scared to devote their lives in God. But really is not something He needs from us. He does not need us to "support" Him or "Live for Him and Glorify His name". He is well-off without us, probably even more well-off. It's by His Grace that we have a chance, not the other way around. 

Firstly, Hillsong asked everyone for an altar call, THOUSANDS of people to alter call. Although only God knows who really received Jesus as their personal saviour and Lord, it still was a moment of surrounding love. 
The member said;
- First thing to do, is to talk to others about your salvation and greatness of God, how your life has changed. 
- Secondly, go find a church, and then be the church.
- and lastly, take your Bible and make it your own. Read it all the time and sincerely, think about the verse and pray about it. 

There really is no other thing in life. Life is just an opportunity that God gave us. Without this life, we would be just going straight to hell, the moment that we were born, or even, born in hell. 

Sometimes, that scares the crap out of me. The idea that we wouldn't be born into this life but we would be born into hell. This opportunity of 60~80 years of age is such a blessing from God. 

Psalm 28:7 says:

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

The fact that he gave as a living chance, the fact that we are far from deserving any piece of it, but he still gave it to us, is amazing. 
We are saved from His strength, from His shield and we should be, if at least, thankful.

I hope you all see this biggest miracle of love. 

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Body of Church, Body of Christ - Part 2

As the second part of this series, here is a clip by Francis Chan describing the church in the bible. 
Church in the Bible shows that there is a lot of passion and unity.

Francis Chan explains the church in the Bible in a very simple terms,

In the video, he talks about 4 aspects of church:  

Love, Passion for sharing the gospel, Fellowship and Bible Training.

Love

Love is an important aspect about a church. Church is a group of people who love each other and lift another. This love is not from us sinners but from Jesus who loved us so much. God loves everyone in every way and there is nothing that can come between us and His love. The unending love is so amazing since we try so hard to refuse and yet, He still loves us no matter what. 

Passion for gospel

The people in the first church had one goal: to spread the gospel to the world, sharing the good news. Every moment is a mission for us as that is what we are born to be. All we can do is talk about how amazing God is and how He has changed our lives. 

Fellowship

God gives us the people, and the church to support another and to lift another. The accountability of fellowship is so important since we are living in a sinful world. When there is a member who is struggling, we are accountable for each other and to serve another. The importance of fellowship comes from serving another.

Bible Training

When someone died for us to save us from death and eternal separation from God, why can't we spend just a little more time to learn more about that someone? Jesus has lowered Himself to be one of us, and to die in the hands of people He saves. To know more of Him is crucial as a church.

Acts 20 : 28 says,
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

To have the life with love and passion is something so amazing, and to know that God gave us this, is even more amazing.

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Body of Church, Body of Christ - Part 1

What does the Bible say about the church?

People of the world tend to have an idea of the church but have negative connotation of the fellowship and unity of the church.

In the next couple blogs, I will be talking about the church and where it belongs in terms of the Bible. What does the church represent? In fact, what does Jesus represent?

In this world, the church is misinterpreted as a building or an institution. 

I believe that the most important thing about church is that "Church is not where we go, but who we are." It is an abstract concept rather than a physical place.

The church in the bible was never a building. There was no billboard directing to a "CHURCH" or a flashing cross to attract people.

The church in the bible was simply a group of people who are passionate about God and the salvation through Jesus.

In Ephesians 2 says,

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

This group that was built in the foundation of Christ Jesus is the church. This church binds the members of the church to love and be passionate about God and the people.

He is absolutely amazing. Jesus loves me so much to have such passionate people around me and I am so thankful. He has given us this opportunity to be a church and build one another up, not to build a building or a mansion or anything like that. 

Don't just go to church. Be the church. Make it your own and feel for the members of the church and other people. 

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