We were at a gathering with two wonderful pastor-leaders last week. It was so heartening for Bill Hybels and Wayne Cordeiro to pay their own way to Singapore to spend a day with us simply because they really want the church to rise up to her calling.

God is truly doing a work of affirming and strengthening His Bride to ready her for His return.

One of the things we shared was how wide a chasm exists between believers and full-hearted, all out disciples. When we scrub beneath the surface of church-going, tithing, serving, do we find a heart that has said ‘yes’ to Jesus completely?

An honest look within ourselves will reveal that the call to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves and follow Christ is no light walk in the park. Many during Jesus’ day did not make it. His disciples who worked, slept, played and prayed with Jesus Himself almost did not make it…

But God knows each heart - and how to deal with it.

What saddens us is how we measure each other and judge each other so that the glory of following Christ becomes even more cumbersome that God designed it to be.

How about we trust God’s work more and encourage each other while it is day by seeing beyond the hurts, the failures and the sinful struggles to the potential, the promise and the future God has planted in every person who has said ‘yes’ to Him?

We certainly need to hold the tension of our sinfulness and our glory in Christ. But we tend to do the latter a bit too much! If we understood that being totally devoted to Christ is an outcome and not a condition - that it’s knowing Christ’s incredible love and power that draws us - discipleship is a wonderful adventure and the best way to navigate life.

Yes it will have tough moments. But think for a while the sheer wonder, glory and amazing grace that can fill our lives if we follow Jesus 100% without holding back!

Let us help each other while it is day. Speak truth to each other in love.

We fail as a church when we want people to feel good. No, God wants us to feel great! Great because He is Great. Great because as we follow Christ through all his amazing trails, we find there is a power that is not of us. We experience supernatural living. We find soul friends. We explore new things. We discover strengths we did not know could flow through us. We receive plantings of the LORD. It’s great to follow Christ!

Yes, it’s tough too. We may not have a particular lifestyle. People may find us unusual in our interests and pursuits. We may have to expect miracles…

Every step of the way, it’s either ‘yes Jesus’ or ‘yes something else’. This is how the chasm is bridged.

“mediocrity is the enemy of the best”

jenni

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I woke this morning to crying. we live in Bishan - a nice estate; but tears and brokenness are everywhere… this little boy cries often. i can hear a frustrated mother; and a very dismayed child and the words in Mandarin “I don’ want, I don’t want…” What an awful way to start the day. I lift up prayers for the family and stand at my window to trace the sound….hoping to locate where it comes from…

We live in world in pain. Romans tells us all creation groans. Even the mess we see - from crime to abhorrent acts - are like cries for help - cries for salvation. We the church know the way of salvation; for we know the Saviour.

Singapore is doing well; but she needs the Saviour. Indeed there are many pockets that may have gone largely untouched by us –

destitute elderly, delienquent and disenchanted youths, gays and lesbians, dysfunctional families, foreign workers…

This does not mean we necessarily need to organise and spend huge sums of money; indeed I applaud those individuals and families who live with a sense of mission and reach out to these needs in a sincere and gracious fashion. At last count, we have nearly fifteen percent of the population who claim to be Christian/Catholic. If everyone one and every home lived with a sense of mission to change the world; could we not reach some more?

Some of these needs require very specialised effort. So we do need organised, well planned efforts. Our churches are filled with well-educated, well-traveled, well-trained people (and in many churches, well-paid too). Surely we can get our act together to seriously address some of these needs?

There is plenty to do.

Yet God is not seeking do-ers in the end. Remember He wants our obedience and not our sacrifice? God is seeking those who will truly worship and love Him. He will transform us into the do-ers He needs for his world.

I confess that we are in this place - of learning to obey. But O how I long to make a difference in our world! How I want to be able to figure out where the crying in my neighbourhood is coming from so I can perhaps connect and get to know what needs lie behind all those tears….

So I daily learn to obey; and I daily ready myself for action.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the eivl desires you had …(but) be holy…” 1 Peter 1v13f     

So help us God.

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