Showing posts with label kingdom of God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kingdom of God. Show all posts

Jul 15, 2011

A Call to Serve

Hallo there everyone. Today I will like to share with you a few things about my life experience when I was first called to serve God.

To begin with, I want to share with you this one word - Availability. So often, we feel we must have this and that, we must be good looking or skillful to serve. Take the music ministry for instance, we always feel, oh, I must have this before I can do this. But friends, let me share with you what did the LORD says in the Bible.
1 Samuel 16 v 7. 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.
God wants you to make the space in your heart, to do things for Him, and not find a million excuses out when He calls us.

Why is God asking us to serve today?

1) God is asking us to serve today, because, He wants to train us and equip us gradually to be effective witness and servants.

2) He has actually a lot of gifts He wants to give to us. Let me share with you something, when I was just 12 years old, I was never able to speak in public. I was talkative no doubt but it was all channeled to poor use (gossip / tell crude jokes etc.) But when God has called me to serve in Ushering in Christian Fellowship, only did I realized I can use this gift for the Glory of God as He wants me to use this gift to speak words of encouragement and even to make people happy and smile. Afterwards, when I begin tapping into music, I started playing the guitar. Few years later, it was so clear to me as well I can use music as a tool to sing about God, to the people around me, and to point out as well that music for God is a fun thing and an honorable thing to do.

Everyone, I would like to share with You today, how is God asking us to serve.

1) When I was in Form 1, I was called to serve the LORD. I could remember, The LORD only called me to come to church / CF, He wants me to first serve Him by my attendance. Let’s face it, how can one possibly serve the LORD, when He / She does not come to church / YTM? How can one possibly serve the country, if let say he / she is not the citizen of the country?

2) God instructed us to LOVE Him. It is to follow Him, it is to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him. To simplify this, we can only be God’s servants and children, when we choose to obey Him. Now, is there something today God is asking you to do?

3) When God calls us to serve, He actually wants us to engage with other people. You see, when we serve in everything we do in Church / Christian Fellowship / YTM, it’s all about people and caring for them - fellowship and doing things out of LOVE. Part of loving God is to love people, think about it for a moment, if we say we love God and just stay at home - does nothing. Is that true LOVE? When God ask us to LOVE, the simple things we can at least start by doing is to learn to obey and respect our parents, give thanks to God, care and be nice to our friends and the list goes on. But friends, until and unless we know how to do these, we will not be effective in serving God in another level.

4) God wants you to serve by volunteering. When there is a particular ministry in church that needs help and you are moved by the Spirit, will you do it? When you have the skills to serve in ministry, will you volunteer to be a servant and serve? Servant might sound like a degrading word but certainly not when it refers to the LORD we trust in and LOVE - who is in fact, our servant King.

As far we are concerned, God wants us to serve and He is more concern with the input rather than the output, for the output is never our job but the work of God. Will you trust God today as You make a decision to serve the LORD? The call to be a Christian is the call to be a servant, will you heed this call today?

- Johnson Khor

Image taken from:
http://adetelur.blogdetik.com/2010/07/21/82/
http://www.fteleaders.org/pages/prospective-students
http://caravanofdreams.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/whisperings-of-the-heart-by-stewart-bitkoff/

May 3, 2011

Tracting - For the Kingdom of God

Hey everyone, how have you all been? It's been a while since I wrote something and this time around, this post is very relevant to me recently. I would like to share about the purpose of tracting.

A few of the reasons why I have suggested that the youth to undergo something as such as tracting is solely because sometimes we proclaim we are Christians but we sometimes don’t live a life that is worthy of Christ. Even when we live a life that is seemingly goodie goodie and all, sometimes what really set us apart then from the nice people we see in our classrooms or even workplace? The answer to this question, is Jesus Christ.

You see sometimes we don’t share about the Gospel, sometimes, we want to but we don’t know how. And to make things worse, instead of sharing the Gospel, sometimes we use the wrong choice of words and we end up giving our friends the wrong impression of who God truly is and what Christianity is all about. That was why the youth of TTDIGC would like to give the youth a brief exposure of what it is like to tell the world or maybe just the visitors to the curve what it is like to share the gospel using a the tract - CAN YOU SURVIVE AN EARTHQUAKE?!

You see we sometimes as Christians, we get complacent and we like to think that church is only for Christians. That my friends is when we get very wrong. You see, when Jesus Christ gave us the Great Commission, He told us in Matthew 28 v 18 - 20. 18:
"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus tells us today, that people of all races, nation, should come to know the LORD, and we
should be God’s messengers, to tell them about the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I believe only a few will turn out for the tracting but I truly believe God will transform and God will move in our hearts. Even if you are not joining tracting or even the briefing, what is truly important is that you do not limit God to a Sunday. I encourage you all to be salt and light to the world everyday and constantly look for ways to stand out for Christ. Being a Christian does not necessarily mean you have to tell people about Jesus Christ, surely, that must come but it starts from yourself living a life that is somehow different and when your friends notice that there is a difference within you they will somehow see the Holy Spirit - God working in you. In Matthew 5:16, it is written,
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
And if today, you have a desire to tell your friend about the Gospel but you don’t know how, you can always approach any of the Uncles or even Aunties in church or the older youths - we are always ready to help.

The gospel must be preached, because there is never a limit to the Love of God who wants to reach out to His beloved people.

- John Khor

Images taken from:
http://www.thewordstreetjournal.com/2010/05/tract-handing-101.html
http://trevinwax.com/2010/06/02/gcr-in-a-nutshell/
http://samandmariootero.blogspot.com/