Alert:

We have received a new mission that needs to be accomplished by this Sunday. The objective is simple and straightforward - Make sure Jon Wong is able to cycle by the end of the afternoon.

Location: East Coast Park
Time of rendezvous: 130pm - 5pm

Instructions:
1) Lunch will be consumed at East Coast Park
2) Change straight after service and meet inside Hall 2
3) Dinner after the mission is optional
4) Jon Wong will treat ONE lucky person for dinner - if he or she is able to make Jon Wong Cycle
5) Bring extra set of clothes to change in after cycling
6) Bring water
7) Bring about 15 dollars for meals and rental of bikes
8) Remind one another to come!
9) Bring your friends. :)
10) Jon Wong will buy drinks for the friends + those who bring friends.
11) Pray for good weather. Pray!!

Peace Out.

I'm putting up what I shared in Secell last week, for the benefit of those who were not able to join us. I feel that this is an important message for all of our members, and it's also good for those who were there to be able to reference it.

Moving beyond head knowledge and into fullness in Christ

The background to this passage: After wandering the desert for 40 years, Joshua was addressing the Israelites just as they were about to cross the Jordan river into the Promised Land.

Joshua 3:9-11
Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.

Why did Joshua have to say "This is how you will know that the living God is among you"? Wouldn't the Israelites have known that God is real? After all, they had lived their entire lives up to that point hearing about how God had sent the 10 plagues, parted the Red Sea, came down on Mount Sinai etc etc.

The reason is precisely because these Israelites had only heard about those miracles and events, and had not actually seen one for themselves. The previous generation had passed away in the desert, because they chose to disobey God. God had Joshua say that line because He wanted them to know that whatever they had known about up to that point was not just stories, but that God was really capable of those things. The first generation that left Egypt had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, but this generation would also cross another body of water on dry ground as well.

The result was emphatic. The Bible continues to say that the people revered Joshua just as they did Moses. Furthermore, it says in this in the Book of Judges:

Judges 2:7
The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.


Up to this point, everything seems to be going well for the Israelites. They had almost finish conquering Canaan, they were prospering and were faithfully serving God. But we all know what happened next in Judges: a repeated cycle of the people sinning and becoming oppressed by a foreign power, a judge coming to rescue them, and the people falling back into sin again. What caused such a dramatic change in the people's behaviour? The answer lies just 3 verses down the same chapter:

Judges 2:10-13
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

Subsequent generations of Israelites fell into sin because they knew neither the Lord nor what he had done. Needless to say, they did not experience His great love for themselves.

Many if not all of us in Secell at this point are second-generation Christians, including myself and many of the leaders. Much has been said about second-generation Christians, but first and foremost I want to say that we have been shown amazing grace, to be placed into a Christian family and getting to know the Lord from a young age. Many people will never get the chance to hear the Gospel, let alone come to know Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Saviour.

We second-generation Christians are in many ways similar to the second-generation of Israelites that were about to go into the Promised Land: brought up knowing about what God had done for previous generations, but not necessarily having experienced them for ourselves. We grew up learning about Jesus in sunday school, colouring pictures of Jesus' birth in the manger, memorising bible verses etc. This is perfectly summarised in the familiar sunday school song:

Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.

We know that Jesus loves us and came to this world to save us, because it is written in the Word. Unfortunately, many Christians continue to remain at this stage of head knowledge about Jesus. When the storms of life do come about, what will happen then? Is your foundation built on only head knowledge? Or is your faith grounded on solid rock?

Isaiah 7:9
...If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.' "

We need so see God real in our lives, both for ourselves and to be able to show the real impact of God’s love in our lives to others!

Ephesians 3:17-19
... And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The Amplified Bible spells it out more clearly:

Ephesians 3:19
[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

We must therefore strive to lead a life in which the love of Christ is more than just head knowledge, but it is something that we have experienced for ourselves, i.e. we have our own testimony to share. Our faith will then be firmly anchored, and we can be more effective in sharing the Good News to others.

As I shared last week in Secell, we can start by asking God to take control of the situations in our lives that we are facing. There may be a problem in our relationships with family or friends, or we could be facing difficulties in our schoolwork. We need to bring it before God and ask Him to take control. We shouldn't pray in a limited manner, e.g. "God, please change that person", since we shouldn't limit what God can do, but instead trust that He will do what is good. This is where the Word is important, because it teaches us what are the right attitudes and responses to have and God's various promises. So for all the talk about experiences, do not look for them without the Word of God to verify it by!

We also need to identify things in our lives that are not pleasing to God, and humbly confess them and offer them to God. This could be our pride, or a particular behaviour that is not good, since these things can hamper our fellowship with God, by making us feel that we are not worthy of approaching God for help. Remember that God is a doctor, and you go to see a doctor when you're sick, not when you're healthy.

Let us all continue to pray for each other as we all strive to fully know God's love that surpasses knowledge and to be filled unto fullness in Christ!