Sorry for lagging so long guys. Long week :) Finally thursday tmr but here's the sermon notes for last week :D

The greatest love by pastor shirley:)
- we all desire unfailing love in some way or another :)
- Human love however, fails a lot because imperfect people bring imperfect love
- God however brings-> perfect love :)

+[ 1 John 4:9-10] Main text

1. Jesus identifies with YOU :) (v9a)
-God sent His only son to us
- People cannot "understand" or empathize each other totally due to different backgrounds and situations
- Jesus came down to "understand" how humans felt and He became one of us to learn and experience what we go through

+[Hebrews 4:15]
- The struggles we go through now are timeless as those in Jesus's time e.g loneliness and weariness
- Jesus faced the same thing and was tempted in every way, yet He did not sin.
- He understood us and He died for us, chose to die for us :)
+[ Ephesians 3:18 (NLT)]
-"His love is wider from east to the west"
- Jesus is a God that is not far away from us but close to us, He understood and loved us :)

2. Jesus gives you the FULLEST life
- What is the difference between a full life and being alive?
- King Solomon was the richest man in the world and was wise as well.
- He had everything but...
+ [Ecclesiates 1:14}
- Many times God sees the potential in us, but He can't do anything with us for we chose to waste it on meaningless things
- Which is why Jesus came as the way, the truth and the light
- Ask God what He wants you to be
+ [John 10:10]
- Not just a life but a life to the fullest- which is being all we are created to be and doing all we can do for God's plan :)

3.Jesus brings you back to God (v10)
+[ Philippians 2:6-8 (NLT)]
- He came as a servant and died on a cross
- He did not come down as God or flaunt His powers but He took many steps back from His comfort zone as God and became man to feel the pain and suffering and to save us
- Yet sometimes we can't even take one step back, for Jesus
- Heaven was what Jesus had known for all eternity, unimaginable glory and beauty, yet He chose to come down to Eath and be born in a manger.
- He lay down His rights as God to bring us back to God
- He put up with all the people who mocked, hated and wanted to kill Him
- He knew that He would be killed by the human beings He created yet He went to the cross.
- it was not anything else but sin that compelled Jesus to come down to earth, simply to save us.
+ [Romans 6:23 (NCV)]
- Jesus would rather go to hell for you, than to go to heaven without you

Labels: sharings (:

Happy Birthday Sam! =D We lub euu!!

Labels: all the randoms

Hey everyone, just wanted to share something that i happened to think of today :)

Instead of thinking of what Jesus has done, think of what Jesus could have NOT done.

He could've come to Earth and healed the sick, shared the gospel and left it to you to believe whether He had come to save you.

He could've chosen not to die on the cross for us.

He could've chosen not to teach us, not to spread the message, but only to those He chose to be saved.

He could've been just another good man.

But no.

He planted the roots of the first ministry. He healed. He provided. He gave. He went to those who scorned him. He went to those who most needed him. He discriminate against the poor but went to them. He was impartial to all and taught all He could. He forgave our sins when He could have rebuked or destroyed us for our sins. He CHOSE to die on the cross for us, even though He knew it would hurt and He would suffer horribly. He could've gotten down from that cross anytime, He is the Messiah. But he CHOSE not to, instead, He let our sins, the sins of man who choose not to believe in Him, who run away from his word time and time again, seep in to every drop of His blood and He washed it all away... till...

" It is finished."

Now we are forgiven, again and again, till sometimes we forget to cherish what we have. The love of our Saviour.

So let's always remember this especially in this time of Sowing and evaxing... let's not lose sight of Jesus.

Every person is a soul saved.

Jiayou everyone! See you at caregroup.

- Jon

Labels: sharings (:

(Walking Right with God Pt. 2 by Pastor Ben)
Responding to God's Sentence

[Micah 1:8-16]

Just to give a little background information about the Book of Micah since the recent sermons touch on this book (coped from the Bible Study notes during December):

Author, place and date of writing
The author of this book, Micah, tells us that he was from Moresheth (1:1), a village in the Shephelah of Judah also known as Moresheth Gath (1:14). We know virtually nothing else about him, although he is one of the few Old Testament prophets to be cited by name in another's writings (Jeremiah 26:18, citing Micah 3:12). This signifies that Micah's book was recognized as canonical by the time of Jeremiah's ministry. In addition, Habakkuk 2:12 is a modification of Micah 3:10, and 4:2-3 is almost identical to Isaiah 2:2-4, although in this case we cannot be sure whether the oracle originated with Micah or with Isaiah.

Today some scholars believe that only part of the book of Micah came from the prophet himself and that the rest is secondary. The prophecies of judgment in particular are thought to be authentic, wit the more optimistic predictions - those that promise salvation for Judah - coming from some other prophet. This approach to the text, which is founded on the premise that a given prophet had only a single, uncomplicated message, is misguided and simplistic.

Micah 1:1 informs the reader that Micah preached during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. This would place his ministry during the second half of the eighth century B.C., making him a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Hosea.

Audience
Micah ministered primarily to the southern kingdom of Judah, but he also addressed the northern kingdom of Israel and predicted the fall of Samaria (1:6), which took place in 722 B.C. His message was aimed in particular at greedy and oppressive landowners (2:1-5) who supported Israel's corrupt political and religious leaders who had led the nation into moral decay.

Cultural facts & highlights
......... Micah condemned the sin of Judah and anticipated divine judgment against the nation (3:1-4; 4:10a), yet he also forecast her ultimate triumph over all the other nations on Earth (4:10b-13). Even in this Micah was not simply a patriotic Jew looking forward to victory over the Gentiles; to the contrary, he expected Israel in the long term to be a blessing to all the other nations (4:2-3). In short, Micah was advancing a theology to deal with the current dilemma of the chosen people of God and the house of David falling under judgment. Far from implying the failure of the covenant promises, this very judgment would be the means by which God would fulfill those covenants.

1) Be deeply burdened by sin and its consequences (v8-9)
- Romans 9:2-3(cev) "my heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. I would gladly be placed under God's curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people."
- God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.
- Be worried and brokenhearted not just about our own sins, but also the sins of others, just as Micah mourns over the invasion of the cities in Judah, his homeland.
- Know that the consequence of sin is death and feel sorrowful for people who continue to sin.
- Hate sin!

2) Call people to prayerfully seek God's mercy (v10-16)
- ask people around us to recognise the sins in their lives and turn back to God
- the expression of the verses are ironies to the names of the cities mentioned in them (see the Bible appendix)
- 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NCV) "The kind of sorrow God wants makes people change their hearts and lives. This leads to salvation, and you cannot be sorry for that. But the kind of sorrow the world has brings death."
- Embrace Godly sorrow and not worldly sorrow!

Lessons from the Prophecies:
a) God's judgment is always just and righteous and appropriate
- Jesus loved sinners but He confronted their sins nevertheless
b) Speak the truth in love
- we love people therefore we want to tell the truth about people to them!
c) Sin brings destruction to our loved ones (v16)
- shaving = mourning
- take evil seriously because all evil will be judged
- understand holiness and become even more evangelistic to the people around us who have yet encounter God!

-JX

Labels: sharings (:

PHOTOS FROM JIEXUN'S BIRTHDAY!

-Courtesy of your friendly photographer Mia! (: I'm sorry I took so long to post them up. Am too lazy to caption them though.












Happy 1st spiritual month! (: We love you guys very much. Haha.

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Happy Birthday JIEXUN! =D

Labels: all the randoms

Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

This is one of my favourite verses which God has kindly popped into my head not too long ago. Sometimes we get too caught up in what we have to do, what we want to do, such that we forget that we don't have to do it all on our own. Rather than chasing results all the time, why not chase God? In Him, whom do we fear, in the He who holds His children safely in His hands. :)

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 8:38-39

He loves us and will be there to make things turn out right.
For God is good and in Him, Impossible is nothing. :)

Have a good week. Cya on thurs.

-Jon

Labels: sharings (:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Labels: sharings (:

hello everyone (: shall share something i thought of today, since its been some time since someone posted. its almost about middle of the week, hang in there pple, and i'm looking foward to seeing all of you on caregrp on thursday!
-


Is your heart full of clutter, of debris?

Sometimes we sin, do things we know we shouldn’t do. We’re ashamed, so we sweep all these things under the bed, in fear that others would see and judge us. Other times, we have burdens, a huge box of them. We want to run away from them, we don’t want to face them, so we shove the box of burdens in a dark, dusty corner and attempt to forget about them. But the harder we try, the worse it gets. All the ugly things that I desperately want to blot out from my life keeps piling up, one day there’d be so much that my heart can’t contain it. There’s no more space left to cram these ugly things deep down inside. The heart collapses.

I don’t want that to happen.

So I go to my Saviour every day, ask Him for forgiveness for all the things I’ve done but shouldn’t have. I ask Him for refreshment, for strength for the new day. I lift up my burdens to Him. No shoving, no hiding, no running away from. Coz my Redeemer has already faced the worst so I can get the best. My heart’s new, a clean slate, because I go to Him.

Is your heart free of clutter today? Or is it piling up with junk, junk you can dispose off?

-

(:
<3fungg.

Labels: sharings (:

Heyhey sotong here!~ I loved today's sermon! :) Think it's very applicable to everyone's life coz who doesn't need or even WANT love in their lives! heez... Anyway we missed the OAC peeps~! Hope you all had a great time at Ubin! Glad that you all turned up for Central gathering afterwards anyway =p Hmmm... okiez to spare jon some of the burden, shall post what I learnt at service today! =) Hope it helps! =)



13th Jan 2007's sermon: TOUGH LOVE
by Pastor Shirley

[Micah 1: 1-7]
- 'Micah': who is like God
- Micah lived among the Israelites. He is a prophet - someone who hears God's message directly to tell his people.
- Walking right with God
- Tough love does not mean no tender love is involved - God showers a good balance of tough love and tender love upon us! <3
- Sometimes God manifests His tender love in terms of discipline too

1) God won't let us remain in sins (v2-4)
- God loves us so greatly to the extent that he can't bear to see us remain in sin
- He insists on experience and truth in our relationship with Him
- God does not insist against sin because of His personal preference, but because He hates the fact that sin destroys us and wrecks us
- When God sees that we are not living life to the maximum (e.g. we find intimacy in the wrong things at the wrong time - BGR, lust, pornography, etc.), God feels very wrecked and upset that we are being ruined
- God cares for us. He cares too much to remain silent in watching us sin.
- [Hebrews 12:6 (MSG)]: 'It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.'
- God is not an irresponsible Father. He gives us what we NEED, rather than what we WANT, because He knows best what is best for us.
- [Hebrews 12:11] --> It's the well-trained (in God's discipline) that find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

2) God points out where we have gone wrong (v5)
- When God tells us our mistakes, He is telling us the TRUTH, because HE LOVES US! =)
- God tells us our specific area of mistake lovingly but firmly, so that we don't have to go about trying to guess our wrongdoings/sins
- [Psalm 139: 23-24]
- God knows the areas that we need to change in and He'll use people around us to point out our growth areas. Hence, don't get angry against people who tell us our mistakes, because God may be using them to tell us our mistakes, whether blatantly or not.
- Although we may make mistakes at times and are very ashamed ourselves, be glad that God gives us the chance to see our mistakes and help us to change ourselves.
- God is very forgiving.
- Difference between life with satan and life with God:

• Life with satan -
  => General Condemnation (v. general criticism about oneself and one's whole life, etc.)
  => Remorse (just dwelling on the past and feeling like you can never improve)
  => Guilt
• Life with God -
  => Specific Conviction (relevant to a specific area/event so that we KNOW what to improve in, how to change, etc.)
  => Repentance (not so worried about the past, but focused on change in the future)
  => FAITH!

- [2 Corinthians 7:10]

3) Our choice results in consequences (v6-7)
- [Exodus 34:6b]
- God is very forgiving and compassionate
- What happens if we insist on sinning and walking away from God?
= Each choice we make results in consequences! ('cause-and-effect' theory)
- [Galatians 6:8] --> What we sow, what we reap!
- God is very patient, but if we insist on sinning, consequences will catch up with us some day in our life and we will realise how life without God's favour is so joyless, directionless, insecure and filled with guilt
- We need God's favour to live life to the fullest in clear conscience and freedom, under open heavens in peace and joy
- Life with God makes so much more sense!
- Three motivations to walk with God:
= Grace of God (God's forgiveness)
= Fear of God (not slavish fear, but holy fear -
--> When we have the fear of God, we have wisdom because we run our lives based on biblical principles, not at random
--> Also, we will try to keep our lives pure and blameless when we know that someone is watching us!
= Love of God (God's love knows no boundaries!)
- [2 Peter 3:9]


Happy reading!
Hui Ying :)

Labels: sharings (:

OK. This is the Sermon for the 6th of January by our one and only Pastor Shirley.
As usual if you have anything to edit or add plz feel free yep.

Running the race of life
+ [Philippians 3:12-14]

- A Christian life is like a race simply because we lead everyday of our life for and with Jesus :)
- Our love for Jesus will increase everyday till our last breath :)

1. God has a race for you (v12)
- We know we have a race for us ( all Christians), but did you know that there is a personal race God created for YOU?
- Jesus took hold of us to run towards the prize
. What then is the prize?
. It's what we were created for
. So let's go back to our purpose

We were created to
- So we know that Our goal is to go back to becoming how we once were- going back to become Christ- like like we were made to be
- For we were made in His image.
- Repenting saves us
+ [ Romans 8:30 ( MSG)]
- God called us by name
- Replace "them" with "me" and you'll see that He is "gloriously completing what he had begun" in us :)
- God sent Jesus to the cross, to end the pain of eternal death, not only to start his ministry
- He made us not only to start but to finish the race of life.
- God has a race just for us! :D

2. Put the past behind You (v13)
- When we live on yesterday's success, you will be proud
- When we live on yesterday's failure, we are discouraged.
- Live for today and tomorrow :)
+ [2 Peter 3:18] (CEV)
- No one runs a race looking backwards
- Discouragement might make us feel mediocre is enough but...
God SAYS OTHERWISE!
+ [ Proverbs 24:16 (MSG)]
- God loyal people do not stay down for long.
- He lifts us up on our feet back into the race.
- We have no reason to stay down because we have our almighty father always ready to aid us :)
- NEVER GIVE UP, and always have a chance
- QUIT, and you don't even have half a chance!
- We shouldn't give up with God in our lives.
- We're here because someone didn't give up on us. Amen? :)
- Furthermore, God never gave up on us :).

3 Focus on the future(v14)
+ [Romans 4:17b]
- God called on us " as though we were"
. He believes in us so much that He uses His people to tell you that your ready and calls you a shepherd/leader/etc... although your not one yet.
. He believes in us so much, why can't we believe in Him too :)
- If we give it a try and begin to believe in God a little more, it will happen.
- Breathrough 1000 happened :)
- Even if we're not whoever we're called to be yet, God sees who we WILL and CAN be
- We may not be ready but God sees us ready and makes us ready.
+ [1 Chronincles 4:10]
- " And God granted his request"
- We may not have known anything about Jabez for the Bible did not mention much
- But we know that he ASKED, and was BLESSED!
- Our best days are always ahead of us!
- Greater things are in store for us all the time :D
- We are all blessed to be a blessing to others!


Persevere and ask God, and He'll be there for you. In this coming year we'll need God a lot more, with new challenges and new experiences. There'll be ups and downs but dun forget to ASK and RECEIVE :) and PERSEVERE :D

Don't doubt how God sees your ready pick up the challenge and face it :)

May everyone has a good week ahead.

- Jon

Labels: sharings (:

Just wanna jot this down before everything slips off my mind. When Jesus died on the cross for us, he redeemed us from the consequences of our sins for eternity. Sometimes we tend to become emotional/moody/guilty when we think we're not worthy of His act on the cross because of whatever sins we realise we've committed. Or we may feel untouched within. But instead of being just thankful, we must also be determined in changing our ways and recommitting our lives into His hands, so that Holy Communion doesn't become a ritual or an act of self-pity.

I take my bread seriously! They must be good and worthy of being the body of Christ!

Labels: sharings (:

by jonathan's request, im here to make a guest appearance haha (:

hope everyone's first day of school has been great, think it's not bad for me though. yepyep. except for the fact that there's a bio test tmr and i cant finish studying and im still here and i think im going to fall asleep sooner or later.

good luck to those with bio test tmr haha!

have a good night everyone!

`eunice

Labels: all the randoms

As usual, Mia here updating with photos from the 31st Dec!

Yayyy. (I didn't know what to caption this one. Would be weird if I said their names since you guys already know them.)

We had telepathy la. Both wore OBS shirts. 'You owe me a Mos fries!'

Our dear host going crazy at midnight outside his house.



I think this is a nice photo. Except that Raphael looks gay.

(:



Yvonne looks scary here!!


Ryan & Robert were hilarious when they were making the prank calls!


Guess whose butt this is. He's gonna kill me for putting this up!

Xiang's leg.

Labels: cg mania