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I was a little late for my dinner appointment. Dinner was a delicious meal at Esquire Kitchen with Benny and two interesting people. By interesting, I mean Mr. L.T. Jeyachandran from the Ravi Zacharias Int. ministries and Uncle Lim from church. You see, LT was in town to speak on apologetics… more specifically, in church. He made many valid points, spoke from the heart and was frank enough in answering questions from the floor.
There’s really too much to share, but to summarise what I did learn:
Apologetics comes from the word “apologia”, and is the defence of the Gospel. Not the defence of Christ, as He doesn’t need our defence… Rather we should have a reason for why we believe what we believe. The mind (knowing about God) and the heart (knowing God) has a mutual, reciprocal relationship.
We cannot fill gaps in our knowledge with “God did it” and remain ignorant. Knowledge should increase as we grow in the Lord.
The gospel begins in Genesis 3 (sin) and ends in Rev 20 (judgement) but the creation (and all the physics!) are covered in Genesis 1-2, Rev 21-22. LT introduced the concept of materiality as opposed to materialism. The Word of God clearly talks about materials, creation – we are not rejecting the reality of materials, but we are rejecting that materials are everything in life. In fact, this is the BIG PICTURE. We are to realise that we will be physically raised, there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
WHY?
Because the present order of things are imperfect, subject to destruction (death, rotting etc) but the new order of things shall be eternal.
There are 4 questions that evolutionists can’t answer:
How can organic come from non-organic? How can life come from non-life? How can reason come from non-reason? How can morals come from non-morals?
Lastly, don’t separate the supernatural from the natural. Pagan gods “prove” themselves by controlling the elements… that’s why miracles have been reduced to magic, prophecies to astrology and palmistry…
No… God is greater and more supreme than this. God does not prove Himself by controlling the elements. He said He created them. We are to continuously be fascinated about God… fascination leads to worship for it is then that we realise He is truly worthy.
AW Tozer said that if we studied the Bible and the hymns of Charles Wesley and ??? we will be good theologians. Worship songs today lack the substance of hymns… LT said he took these words seriously and today he has 200 hymns memorised. Finally, we are to contemplate/reflect Christ. It’s like hiding God’s word in our hearts so that it may transform us… with the knowledge of God’s word, then the Holy Spirit can renew our minds… What’s the point of knowing how to die, if we don’t know how to live… because we have missed out on the substance of God’s word.
What a lot I learnt! LT spoke in SIB earlier this year on Christology, and I will always remember this particular illustration that he gave…
How can you explain 3D to someone who lives in a 2D world. Likewise, how can you fully explain Christ to humans. But praise be to God, we are made in God’s image, and Christ came into our lesser dimension to be that projection of what it’s all about.
Picture is an old brochure from one of LT’s seminars
What a tiring week! Either Benny had classes or I had classes… furthermore, I hardly had time to watch the news. At least yesterday, over some Maggi goreng, we watched the news.
There he was… the world economy’s agent of change. Mr Barack Obama, on TV, answering questions for the online townhall. I enjoyed listening to his positive statements and observing how he carefully tackled each question. I wouldn’t say he was being diplomatic, rather his admirable choices of words, portrayed both an intelligent man and a charismatic leader.
Tonight, we’ll be launching the new Connect Groups (CG’s) for FSCC. What’s FSCC? Well, it’s the newest church in town…
FSCC stands for FGA Serdang Community Centre and it occupies one floor of a shoplot near Mines Wonderland. If I’m not mistaken, it is beside the Proton showroom and Sen Heng. Services are run in English on Sundays. Pre-service starts at 9.15 am while the actual service starts at 10.00 am.
On Tuesdays to Fridays, the Youth Centre is also open to all students who need a place to hang out or study. I think it’s open from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
It’s all very exciting, but at the same time… we’re bracing ourselves to work hard and bring friends ya… so do join us, if you’re looking for a church… Our ushers are positioned downstairs on Sundays to welcome you.
ABSOLUTE FUN – that’s how I would describe my very TNT weekend. Friday night was the cell group Christmas party and we had a total of twenty people, lots of food, laughter, fellowship and best of all, we ended the evening with Rev Wong Kim Kong’s video testimony. We had five new friends with us and we were glad they could blend in among our gila cell members…
Saturday came and went quickly. Errands to run, drama practice, some shopping at the Zon and a wedding banquet.
Sunday was great… In fact, I enjoyed the worship so much because I felt God was speaking to me about what had been in my heart all month. To receive His anointing. Titus was worship leading and most of his songs had that theme…
The sermon was also dynamic. Pastor James spoke about reaching, giving to the poor. It was powerful to note that God truly cares for the poor. The Bible records that the shepherds were the first and only group of people who received God’s angelic visitation and invitation to see baby Jesus “wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger”.
Then came the much awaited Sunday evening. Since the Teenz had the CSI camp years ago, (2 years ago?), there had been several repeats of the CSI game… However, I’d never had a chance to play it at all… Finally on Sunday, I got to play the CSI. It was an ingeniously set up murder mystery, complete with a spooky crime scene in a really dark corner, interrogation rooms, CCTV footage… believable storylines and enough clues to keep our minds spinning.
I was in group one, and it was fun because our group members were sort of in-sync… My group members were Chin Lee, Ivy, Hup Two, Vincent and Jackie. And it was even more fun because we won!
Best actress must be awarded to Cindy (Pei Pei) for her genuine murderess confessions which innocently led our team to suspect that she was indeed the murderer! Muahahaha! That “bloody” tissue made me insane with joy that I accidentally bit my tongue in excitement… Ouch!
Island pictures later…
I had smashing weekend… went to all the beaches that mattered, went to Moreton Island and did the sandboarding with my cousin, ate all sorts of delicious food, watched Bourne Ultimatum…
But nothing could replace my wonderful encounter with God at the Brisbane City Church on Sunday morning.
It was great to be back among fellow worshippers. Pastor Wayne spoke on the Devil’s schemes to break the unity of the church from within. The three strategies of the Devil are
- DELAY – To delay the answers from God when we’re seeking him as the case with the Prophet Daniel
- DECEPTION – To blind the eyes of Christians in terms of their relationship with one another (divorce, enmity, drugs, new-age religions)
- DISTRACTION – To cause Christians to spend time and focus on non-crucial things like debating one’s religion till you’re blue in the face… instead of reaching out to the lost by our loving actions
It is often said that when people come to our church back in JB (Full Gospel Church), they sense God’s strong presence during worship time. And it often draws a response from our own church family that we probably don’t feel it anymore because we’re so used to it.
It’s true. Whenever I worship in Penang or like yesterday, in Brisbane, I can totally sense the power of the Holy Spirit.
You know what we all need? We just need to sing a new song unto the Lord, shout our praise differently, raise up more people in the worship team. But then again, all we really need is to have faith and open our eyes to realise that, God is ever present… Our Emmanuel!
I promise you, island pics later… But for now, know that Jesus loves all His little children. Pastor Wayne closed by reiterating why believers need to go to church.
Don’t let Satan sift us like wheat, separating us grain by grain. Instead, let the love of God, the presence of God and the fellowship of the believers, keep us together in harmony. How better to do so, then to come to God’s house faithfully, week after week.
The other thing I noticed… Their worship style. Only 3 moderately-paced songs. Different from our concept that we start with some high praise and “go into a time of worship”. When I was here in March, they sang Hosanna by Hillsongs, and they still sang that yesterday. So thought I’d put it here…
Verse 1
I see the king of glory 
Coming down the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing
Chorus
Hosanna, hosanna 
Hosanna in the highest
Verse 2
I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a new revival 
Staring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees, we’re on our knees
Bridge
Heal my heart and make it clean 
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what is yours 
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
God, You are so good to me!
Enjoyed the flight, although I slept little – time passed quickly. Watched two inflight movies, Happy Feet (missed this on the last TNT outing) and The Devil Wears Prada.
I arrived in Brisbane at 6.38 a.m. (Brisbane time) You’ll be pleased to know that we’re just 2 hours ahead of Malaysia. The sun’s awfully bright at 6.00 a.m. this time of the year. I touched down, cleared Customs effortlessly, bought my Greyhound ticket to Chinchilla and switched on my handphone.
Lo and behold, Jessie had read my e-mail and had texted me. She and Asgeir picked me up from Brisbane International Airport to their place in Toowong. Also had the privilege to attend Brisbane City Church. It was wonderful to touch down and go straight to church. It was their new premise so everything’s so hip and contemporary. Helen introduced me to some programmes that they run in church. Picture of the church is above.
I was touched on two distinct occasions. Firstly, when the senior pastor (Pastor Wayne Alcorn) held the children dedication and emphasized that they are committed to making this a family-oriented church. Secondly, when for the message, the pastor said that we should be the head and not the tail (Pace-setters, remember?)… Two direct messages that reminded me of FGCJB and that the Lord was showing me that he was present with me.
The day passed quickly and I was surprised to meet Caleb from Penang Free School, of all people. He is pretty settled in Brisbane and we spent the afternoon plucking avocadoes off his forlorn tree… Actually, Asgeir did… for Jessie.
The bus ride to Chinchilla was pleasant and it was only a bit bumpy towards the last hour from Dalby to Chinchilla. We had a 1 hr dinner break at Toowoomba so I saw that town a little bit. Was so happy to see my favourite coffee there – Segafredo’s… and guess what, they had a church band playing there, cos it was Sunday evening.
Kiam picked me up from the Mobil Station in Chinchilla and settled me into C9… that’s my container number and my home for the next few months. I love the look of my hi-tech, compact apartment. Just found out, wireless internet’s available in my room… Will check it out.
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