To be an Authentic Community | Friday, April 29, 2005
I was just thinking about my last week cg sharing about an authentic community and we were sharing whether we are able to unveil ourselves in our cg and let the others know all our fears, shame, joy, happiness and to dare to be ourselves in the cg. To be authentic and dare to be real to others and ourselves require enormous risks and we are placing ourselves in a very vulnerable situation where others can just tear us apart, betray us and causes us to lose faith and trust with one another and we have secrets that we are deeply ashamed of and strongholds that would cause us to lose our dignity and status, reputation and become gossip fodder for others to chew on. That is why we would cover up and just like one friend was just sharing with me this afternoon that we can put on a smiling face and acts as if everything is alrite with us and that God has been gd to us but inwardly, everything is just crumbling away and our hearts are full of anguish and sorrow and yet, we would not allow this face to show up but rather the hypocritical smiling face.
To be authentic within a community requires enormous courage and faith that someone out there cares about me and is interested in my well-being and is committed to pray for me and we have to ask ourselves whether we are willing to play this part or not otherwise, there's no point in talking about an authentic community. We too need to make ourselves vulnerable and the real qn that is important is whether we dare to take the risk, Truth be told, i dun dare and would not want to put myself under that kind of pressure. The irony is that deep in our hearts, we want to be a part of that community but would never have the courage to join. God help us to take that first trusting step to trust one another and believe that God would take care of the rest. That is my prayer and hope that one day we will reach that stage not only in heaven but also here on earth.
I truly believe that we are a world of hurting people and we use all kind of drugs to numb our pain and that drug can be relationships, work, money, material comforts or other things and yet, there would come one day where we find these things meaningless and nothing would satisfy us or numb our pains, pressure, stress and frustrations. We dun even dare to cry out loud because we dun want to let others see our vulnerability and in times of weaknesses. We heard many times from others and even urselves sometimes that "Only Jesus satisfies" and that is true indeed but there is something behind my mind that keeps thinking that there must be something more than this. You may not agree with me but i do believe that something is Jesus is present in this earth through me and you and that we are to be more like Christ and that we can build an authentic community like Jesus did with his 12 disciples. Y not take the chance to build meaningful friendships with one another that could bless you throughout your lifetime? Why not take time to bare your souls with one another and you find it will do you gd? The question is whether we are willing to do it and whether we dare to do it or not? We have not reached that stage yet but i do believe and hope that we are getting there. God bless and take care my friend.
Created at 12:45 AM
Just Thinking Out Loud (Contd) | Thursday, April 28, 2005
I was thinking that even at their deathbeds, they were holding their belief and faith in God so strongly that they would not forsake HIm and throughout the Bible, God delivered them out of harm''s way.I am not talking about the believer''s perserverance but rather the attitude and expectations that a Christian has before God. If God did not do this or that for us, we would forsake Him and live our own lives without Him. If God did not deliver us or help us in our time of need, we get angry with him and leave Him. Are we reverent to Him in the first place or subconsciously treating him as a servant or a genie who do things out of our whims? I really wonder. Jesus hated many things and condemned some for eg. hypocrisy and yet the Christians are the biggest hypocrites in town. We don''t like some people we see and yet when we see them, we pretend that they are our long lost friends and to be so loving towards them where the truth of the matter is that we would rather turn our heels in the other way and walked off. When we ask about the status of the enemy, we pretend that we are so concerned about them but the truth is that we want to hear that they are down on their luck. What hypocrites we are.I told my friends that to believe in Christ is as easy as Abc......... but to live a Christian life is the most difficult road that one could ever follow. No wonder my friend, a Christian, says that the nicest people on earth are not Christians and Christians are not generally nice people. I concur with him
Created at 7:03 PM
Has been thinking for some time now that throughout my Christian life, I have heard my friends who were very committed to God and would spent long hours praying and worshipping God with all their hearts and minds that you would never guess that they would in the end become prodigal sons and daughters. When pressed for an answer, they would say that life has to move on and that we can''t get stuck in that stage forever and i was thinking that all their reasons sounds true and authentic but there is something lacking in their answers. I was sad that we were commanded to transform the world we are supposed to be live and yet many times i see the opposite happens that we are conformed to this world. When God did not answer our prayers or some disasters happen that shocked and terrify us, we quickly questioned the goodness of God and even come to the conclusion that God is dead, there is no God after all in this world or better still, there is a God but He is handicapped in some way. That brings me to question our theology which we have received from young and ask questions such as "What happened to the God who brough Israel from the Red Sea, who supplied Israel out of His goodness and mercy? You see, everybody has their own definition of who God is in his/her mind and when that god in their mind fails to perform to his required duty or function, we become disappointed and angry with God but the truth of the matter is that we cannot lock God in our minds for He is far greater and powerful than our minds can ever comprehend. I like the way Daniel''s three friends treated God in their mind in Daniel 2. They were in danger and their lives could be forfeited at anytime if they refused to bow down before Nebuchanezzar''s golden statue and their reply correctly show the attitude they have before God. The God, they served and believed would deliver them out of harm''s way and they added this one statement that made an impact out of my mind would ever know, that they would not bow down even if the God whom they serve did not rescue them (paraphrase mine). I was thinking that even at their deathbeds, they were holding their belief and faith in God so strongly that they would not forsake HIm and throughout the Bible, God delivered them out of harm''s way.I am not talking
Created at 12:03 PM
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Name: Joseph Chia
Age: 28
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