Week of Sanctification: Reflections 3

It was a glorious picnic in expo max pavilion the past 3 nights. and i thank God for each and everyone of them. It's so comfortable to be sitting on the floor and its a very peculiar sight to see all the assorted mats/sleeping bags/ponchos being laid all over the floor. as if it is a giant cell group meeting. and pastor khong is the cell leader. just having a good time in God's presence doing divine business. settling the outstanding issues in our hearts. a privilege FCBC has, to have with us Dr. Maurice Sklar. who uses his talents in the violin to minister to the church.

"O God, you are my God. Earnestly i seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My heart longs for you. In a dry and weary land, where there is no water."

I've been trying to commit to memory that whole psalm. And while doing that i think it sets the atmosphere and spirit of these 3 nights. [+]

First night:
Success or the presence of God? I felt that this tied in well with John Piper's sermon about the radical effects of the resurrection. Indeed, if success in life is all we seek, if comfort is all we want, if the desires of the world and our perception of life is one that the world strifes for then there are other faiths that can offer that. Christianity is not a comfort seeking religion; God did not design it that way, although God wants to bless us. It is truly about a relationship of the Almighty with us, His creation and about living in the plan that He has marked out for each of us. It is altogether possible to be successful in life without the presence of God. (story in exodus). Because God is faithful, He will bless, but when we search deep within... that God-shaped void is still vacant and in desperate need of the savior's love.

Night Two (Good Friday):
Remembering the path that Jesus took on the cross for us. how he endured the scorn and suffered under the hands of those he love and created.
it can be sum up like this:

King of my life, I crown Thee now,
Thine shall the glory be;
Lest I forget Thy thorn crowned brow,
Lead me to Calvary.

May I be willing, Lord, to bear
Daily my cross for Thee;
Even Thy cup of grief to share,
Thou hast borne all for me.

Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget Thine agony;
Lest I forget Thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.

I teach relief whenever I can. So far in the primary schools it has been fun as much as funny, which is very weird because I have crowdophobia - the fear of crowds. Primary schools are a daily mayhem. But maybe its because I am tall (well at least taller than them) so they LOOK UP to me. No choice. Haha. Anyway, I was in class and when asking for homework or when collecting something, they will say FORGET!!!! rings a bell? it seems that even from young, everyone forgets!! its a human trait that will last the entire lifetime. while we can do and create mental processes to help us remember. we will still fail sometimes. "To Err is human"; yes as well as "To Forget is Man"

Forget forget forget. This is true of our faith too. Sometimes i forget why Jesus died on the cross. Oh maybe sometimes i forget who is Jesus. Might just be a fictional character in my mind. That's why i live the way i live. in folly and strife, trying to make it on my own, to prove that I'm somebody. But God has his way of doing CPR in our memory and to revive our hearts with that greatest story in the history of mankind, so that we know how to live our short life on earth with meaning.

Night 3:
Many times we come to God from a position of insecurity. That's why we try to always be a people-pleaser, living for the expectations of man. It is no wonder we are caught up with having strife in our hearts, getting discouraged when things don't seem to go right and everything else goes terribly wrong. We get easily frustrated with God over matters that maybe don't matter. Oh. how foolish we are. It is like a prince of the rich king who lives like a beggar not knowing his identity. We just need to know that it is not about what we do, but who we are.

SP spent the rest of the night talking family. SP shared with us how he feels he has made a big mistake by "automatically" allowing a culture of calling our leaders spiritual fathers/mothers in the church. He felt the Lord show him that this has caused much disharmony because firstly maybe the spiritual father/mother is not ready to be one; not quite there yet. And maybe the member finds it difficult to respect his/her leader as "father/mother" and thus to label them as one would be a tremendous struggle. It's certainly something that i grapple with too in my own journey.

SP also shared that our church has become too clan-ish. My tribe, your tribe. Pastor Melvyn is right. We have grown deep but small. The segregation is so strong that when I see someone that I am close to from another tribe i feel that distance. Very weird. Hard to explain. And sometimes, the homogeneous setting makes it even worse. But as I hear SP share, I know God is doing something NEW in FCBC. May the divine flow happen in FCBC in this year of sabbath.


Charles Tan
Ps Khong's Church