Lifegroup tops my expectation every week this semester!
God has showered his blessings onto OMEGA3 every single lifegroup gathering this semester--from regular lifegroup to chapel time to breaking fast to valentine blessing and many more. God has opened the flood gates of heaven and showered down on us. This time it's not water, it's omega3 fatty acids--fatty blessings coming down from heaven!
It's such a blessing to see people carrying out our lifegroup covenant--Openness, Outreach, Ownership, hence O3. People have been sharing so much about themselves and how God has been doing great things in their lives so vulnerably. I can't but see the level of trust that we have been building among one another! We have become one family that we all could turn to and count on. With outreach, God kept adding our numbers, as well as diversity. God is so good, and It's so obvious at lifegroup/outreach events to see that all the regular members trying so hard to reach out to guests and meeting up with them outside of LG times. People are genuinely trying to live out the gospel to demonstrate God's love to each other and to everyone else. This semester OMEGA3 had another opportunity to witness a guest coming to know Christ. How it happened is crazy but in the mist of it, it's too obvious that God had used everyone OMEGA3 to demonstrate His love to her and we got the quota. I learned from everyone to be available to be used by God. He seriously LOVES OMEGA3!
In terms of ownership, it's so obvious because if people don't have ownership; they wouldn't try so hard, and they won't be so committed; they won't be so considerate of others.
Specifically, in Lifegroup this past week, people were sharing like crazy! Thoughts were crashing into each other like crazy! People's thoughts were jumping over each other. But those thoughts were so consistent with each other and I cannot help but see the unity in our minds. Unity comes when we are one-minded worshiping God! It's so true! I'm sooo blessed by OMEGA3 because God has blessed it so much!!!!!
2011/02/13
we are so off
This is in LG talking about Uzzah again, and something we talked about was so interesting to us. When Uzzah was killed out of his disobedient (emergency act), all the people in around didn't understand, and they were like... "what the heck?" He didn't understand why God stuck Uzzah for this. Honestly, if I were in that situation, I would do the same thing--go help stabilize the Ark of the Lord. Or if I was in the crowd, I would think the same thing--"what the heack." David also thought of that. He was said to be a man after God's own heart?
What does this say about us?
We are so sinful, and sometimes we don't even understand God's frequency. We are soooooo off! What we thought right might be wrong in God's eyes, and what you might have judged wrong might be the right thing for God. So who are we to tell God he's wrong and blame him for what happened? it's not God's fault, we are just off.
However, God gave us a heart to know him.
"I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart."
Jeremiah 24:7
I don't know how much love it takes for God to come down from his perfect heaven into this sinful world just for us. And we don't understand him. If I coexist in ten dimensions and the knowledge of the ten of me combined wouldn't be enough to understand God. But he decided to lower himself to come down to earth and let us know him in the form of Jesus Christ even though we are so off! Such a blessing!
God is blowing me away! (maybe I'm off? hahaha)
What does this say about us?
We are so sinful, and sometimes we don't even understand God's frequency. We are soooooo off! What we thought right might be wrong in God's eyes, and what you might have judged wrong might be the right thing for God. So who are we to tell God he's wrong and blame him for what happened? it's not God's fault, we are just off.
However, God gave us a heart to know him.
"I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart."
Jeremiah 24:7
I don't know how much love it takes for God to come down from his perfect heaven into this sinful world just for us. And we don't understand him. If I coexist in ten dimensions and the knowledge of the ten of me combined wouldn't be enough to understand God. But he decided to lower himself to come down to earth and let us know him in the form of Jesus Christ even though we are so off! Such a blessing!
God is blowing me away! (maybe I'm off? hahaha)
Elephant--God's Character
I am so blessed that MIC still meets and shares. We were able to come together and combine our realizations about God to encourage each other. Like what P. Seth said: the more we learn about God, the more we realize we don't know God. This is very true.
Imagine there's this elephant and a group of blind people. The assignment for the blind people is to go feel the elephant and describe what this elephant is like. So the first person goes and feels the tail--it's furry; the second person goes and feels the trunk--it's rough; the third person goes and feels the leg--it's like thick... their perspective of this elephant is different. However, when they come together, they are able to share with each other, and put together a better picture of this elephant. Even though they didn't touch this elephant on every single part, but because they knew they were touching the same elephant, they were able to learn together a little more about this elephant than on their own and have a better idea how this elephant is like.
God is this elephant and we are the blind people. He graciously showed himself to us--as much as we could understand. But by showing us different characters and putting us together to share with each other, we were able to be encouraged and have a better understanding about God though we could never fully understand Him.
Thanks Lord for your grace and your gift!
Imagine there's this elephant and a group of blind people. The assignment for the blind people is to go feel the elephant and describe what this elephant is like. So the first person goes and feels the tail--it's furry; the second person goes and feels the trunk--it's rough; the third person goes and feels the leg--it's like thick... their perspective of this elephant is different. However, when they come together, they are able to share with each other, and put together a better picture of this elephant. Even though they didn't touch this elephant on every single part, but because they knew they were touching the same elephant, they were able to learn together a little more about this elephant than on their own and have a better idea how this elephant is like.
God is this elephant and we are the blind people. He graciously showed himself to us--as much as we could understand. But by showing us different characters and putting us together to share with each other, we were able to be encouraged and have a better understanding about God though we could never fully understand Him.
Thanks Lord for your grace and your gift!
Cancer Patient
This past Wednesday's lifegroup reminded me agian the magnitude of my salvation--the Gospel.
So we were learning about Uzzah, and he touched the Ark of the Lord and died. That was his emergency reaction. However, his unconscious action still disobeyed God, and God said not to touch the Ark of the Lord whatsoever. So Uzzah was killed.
How many times do I deserve to die? I lie; I hate; I get jealous; I am selfish (1E100000000+ sins not listed). However, I am still alive and well. Why? It's ALL because of Jesus. Every single one of my sins deserves a death sentence, but Jesus took it away. He took it all! I am so good at following the "Gospel outline" these days that I preach that to myself without putting relating it into my life. This bible study just reminded me that every single day of my life the days themselves are a display of God's grace, not to mention the blessings He poured onto me. And I live like I deserve all these--complaining, hating, creating my own agendas (1E100000000+ things not listed).
Imagine a cancer patient, knowing that he could only live for 2 days, how would he feel when he finds out that he is still alive on the 3rd day? Wouldn't he live with such gratitude? Wouldn't he try his best to make something out of this extension of his life?
I didn't even deserve to be born, but God brought me to this earth and showed me His glory. Every single day of my life is an extension and a display of His grace. But look at how I'm living! It shows how I don't understand the magnitude of His love. But he showed me this: my sin is bottomless, yet His love is bigger than that.
God, give me a thankful heart like a cancer patient who finds out on the 3rd day that he is still alive! I deserve many death sentences but you decided to let me live, and it's all because of Jesus! My salvation story is not something small. It's a display of Your grace and Your mercy. Help me to not just live like it's my last day, but like it's an extra day of my life given by you. And help me to give the day fully to you!
So we were learning about Uzzah, and he touched the Ark of the Lord and died. That was his emergency reaction. However, his unconscious action still disobeyed God, and God said not to touch the Ark of the Lord whatsoever. So Uzzah was killed.
How many times do I deserve to die? I lie; I hate; I get jealous; I am selfish (1E100000000+ sins not listed). However, I am still alive and well. Why? It's ALL because of Jesus. Every single one of my sins deserves a death sentence, but Jesus took it away. He took it all! I am so good at following the "Gospel outline" these days that I preach that to myself without putting relating it into my life. This bible study just reminded me that every single day of my life the days themselves are a display of God's grace, not to mention the blessings He poured onto me. And I live like I deserve all these--complaining, hating, creating my own agendas (1E100000000+ things not listed).
Imagine a cancer patient, knowing that he could only live for 2 days, how would he feel when he finds out that he is still alive on the 3rd day? Wouldn't he live with such gratitude? Wouldn't he try his best to make something out of this extension of his life?
I didn't even deserve to be born, but God brought me to this earth and showed me His glory. Every single day of my life is an extension and a display of His grace. But look at how I'm living! It shows how I don't understand the magnitude of His love. But he showed me this: my sin is bottomless, yet His love is bigger than that.
God, give me a thankful heart like a cancer patient who finds out on the 3rd day that he is still alive! I deserve many death sentences but you decided to let me live, and it's all because of Jesus! My salvation story is not something small. It's a display of Your grace and Your mercy. Help me to not just live like it's my last day, but like it's an extra day of my life given by you. And help me to give the day fully to you!
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