Wow. Time flies. By this time next week, I will be sitting in class
beginning my Theological Education, a.k.a. being equipped to do every
good work (2Tim 3:17)
The whole last week was a blur to me. This is the first time I have
for over a week where I can sit down and calm myself down in reflection
and meditation. Maybe this is the last push my Heavenly Father wanted
me to experience before the fun starts next week. I'll try my best to
recap the emotions and the lessons from the past week.
Sunday, Aug 28, 2005
The Joy of Worship
After a week of perparation, hedge trimmer, trumbone, megaphone and
what-nots, it's my time to preach on the Sunday. This will mark my 3rd
time preach, but it is amazing how much God continues to teach and
equip.
I learned a great deal in preparing for the sermon this time
around, especially because unlike the last sermon where I had several
months to prepare I only had two weeks to put this only together. But
once again, whatever God has started, He will complete. With in the two
weeks, He gave me the hedge trimmer illustration. He pointed me to the
story of Gideon. I was the first time preparing that I actually had
much more material than I needed for the 45 minutes of sermon. Thank
God for opening the floodgates of His teaching.
However this time, through all the preparations, I did not feel
ready. Last time in July, I was ready. I fact, I was ready in June. But
I learn to just have faith in the Lord, and He will place words in my
mouth. So when I arrived at church at 9:30am, I did not think about the
sermon. Mike arrived early too. We setup the chairs, praying for each
one as we place them down. By the time A/V was setup, Joel Lau was
preped on when to blow his trumbone, and everything was ready to go, it
was already 10:15 - no time to look over the sermon notes.
By 10:30, the beginning of the service, I was anxious and excited.
Not really about the sermon, well not yet, but about worshipping God.
When I stepped up to welcome the congregation and give the
announcements and sermon outline, I was filled with energy and the Holy
Spirit. The praises and singing was simple amazing. I never had such
fun worshipping the Lord. Clapping, dancing, lifting of hands, the
worries of the coming sermon simply vapourized with the words sung to
the Lord.
The joy of worship.
For the message, the Holy Spirit took over. It was amazing to see
even Daniel was captivated by the hedge trimmer and my attempt to
reenact the story for Gideon. The Spiritual battle was obvious, the
devil was doing wierd things with my voice, however, thank God for the
brothers and sisters who were praying for me.
After the service, like always the fellowship continued with lunch.
I took the opportunity to sit with Wynne and chatted with her for it
was her last Sunday at our church. It is sad to her go, however God
continues to reminds us that our church in not "losing" her, but in
fact sending her out to His ministry. It was a touching moment when she
invited all of us out to dinner and treated us because she wanted to
share her first paycheque with us. Lord, thank you for the opportunity
to serve with such a wonderful sister over this last year.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Flood
"I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living
creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to
destroy all life."
~Genesis 9:15
Over this past year, God had reminded me of His powers in the form
of rain and floods. 2 hours of rain, flooded many houses (including my
own) and destroyed many roads in the city of Toronto. 2 days of rain,
wiped out 80% of the city of New Orleans. A single tsunami devested
hundred of thousands inhabitants living in South-East Asia. 40 days of
rain destoryed everything on earth. Imagine what happened in the days
of Noah.
A tap on the shoulder, God is saying "remeber me?" In today's
world, we lost our sense of fear of the Lord. He is still the master of
the universe, He is unchanging. Yet, as our technology advances, we
grew proud and wants to take control of what is of the Lord's. And as
we gain this sense of control, we forget about the laws and the
guideline God set in place for us to live our lives to the fullest.
Lord, I pray for the families in New Orleans and surrounding areas.
Pray that your protection will be over the millions affected by this
flood.
Wednesday, August 31 , 2005
Looking Ahead in the New Year of English Service
This morning, Angie, Mike and I had the opportunity to have
breakfast with Rev. Lau to look at the coming year for English Sevice.
Yesterday, Mike and I spend the afternoon going over what need to
be done in hte English Service. God has given us such passion to lead
the congregatiopn from the front, to really roll up the sleeves and
tackle the church issues ourselves while equipping others to help. We
went over these ideas with Rev. Lau and he gave us the vote of
confidence to run with the ideas while once again casting his vision on
us so we are align with the direction of the church. The first thing we
are going to do is to develop a culture in the English Service where
people wants to go, beginning with a bulletin the congregation wants to
keep and better organizing the worship.
After the meeting Angie told me she is really encouraged to see
such brianstorming meeting takes place between Rev. Lau, Mike and I.
And she is very excited about the direction of the church.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
First Point of Contact
Tonight, I had a revelation during the English Web meeting. We are
in the process of redesigning the church website to better suit the
needs of the congregation. And Frederick asked what is the primary
usage of the English web? Then it dawned on me that the website is the
first point of contact people might make with our church. Because of
the age of our congregation, when one of the younger member invites
his/her friends to church, they can point their friends to our website
for more information. So we need to design a website with 3 purposes:
that caters to seekers, help build community between the attendees of
the church, and also educates the existing members with Christian
Education
Sunday, September 4, 2005
1st Year Anniversity
Wow! How time flies? It has been one year. This time last year
little old Joel was worrying about the challenges ahead. Standing in
the front with the rest of the Church Counsel, being calling into God's
service to serve Logos Baptism Church (York Region Mission).
And what a year it has been. God has carried us so far.
Transforming a bunch of university and young careers into servents of
God. None of us have served at the level of church or congregation
counsel before. We knew how to run a fellowship, but you want us to
lead a congragation, you gotta be kidding! And yet, a year down the
road, we all embraced our responsibilities. I had many individual
meetings with the leaders in the congregation over the past month to
get some feedback of what they thought of last year, all of the leaders
are very positive. They responded by saying they would not have traded
anything else for what they have learn over the past year.
Looking ahead into the second year, I am excited. Each member of
the English Counsel is taking ownership of their role, and we are realy
to make some waves for the Lord.
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