1st Corinthians Journey – Phase 1 conclusion
An Exhortation : By Swee Ching
As we came to the end of Cafe Charis and the teaching on Sectarian Spirit, just feel the need to do a sharing on some of my thoughts which I hope can encourage us to apply what we have learned from cell.
This is a long email so please take time to read. Thanks!
Verse from Roman12:5
..so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
The key word here is belongs. Normally when something or someone belongs to us, we own that that particular subject.
Eg. the Mazda car belongs to me, so I am the owner of the Mazda and I am responsible to take good care of my car.
So the above verse says "EACH MEMBER BELONGS to all the others".
So when each member belongs to all the others, it will mean that the rest own the member!
What I want to touch on now is the sense of OWNERSHIP.
I'm going to break this ownership into 2 levels.
1. Personal ownership
- Take ownership over your own spiritual life. All of us have personal responsibility to do our own QT and to seek God for answers in our prayers. On Sunday, Pastor Leslie taught that when you remain stagnant, you risk backsliding. How many of you know that you are stagnant but you are not doing anything about it? Start now!
Practical steps:
a. Tell someone! Be accountable and take action.
b. Go back to the fundamental and build your spiritual disciplines and fundamentals with word of God.
c. Start serving in cell and ministries and mix with people who can help and spur you in your spiritual walk.
2. Ownership over the rest of the cell group/zone/church.
- Once you understand the personal level of ownership, take on a 2 nd level of ownership for your cell/zone/church. The verse says that we are a body of Christ and a member belongs to us! What are we doing about this ownership that God has given to us? Are we pro-active in helping the weak in faith and are we a blessing in cell/zone/church? Or are we simply there to receive?
- Start making a positive difference in our cell group.
a. Transparency/ accountability. Pastor Stanley taught about having a spiritual friend. Be one and look for one now! Start sharing authentically and be accountable. If not, start with your cell leader.
b. Lack of people serving. Start encouraging people to share testimony and to start serving and bless in small ways. Offer your help in small ways! Start small! Affirm one another's spiritual gifts and service.
c. Being serious in word of God. Come prepared for cell word. Read Corinthians and anticipate God to speak through Adrian. Listen attentively and meditate and chew on the truths you learned.
Infact it is natural that cliques are formed. There are healthy cliques and unhealthy cliques (like what Xinhui shared with me). Healthy cliques support one another spiritually and challenges or rebuke one another in love. It includes others unconditionally and uses its strength as a clique to be a blessing to the others. Unhealthy cliques stick to themselves only and are selective in who they want to bless.
We are a big group and we are diverse because God created us differently. However the beauty of unity is to see it in diversity and to see His people standing together in times of blessings and in times of crisis. Do we stick together or do we run away when there is a need for help?
God bless and may we stand together in good or bad times.
love,
SC
No comments:
Post a Comment