To persevere and go on...

many times when setbacks come along in ministry, tots of wanting to give up creeps in and there will be struggles within, telling you "yes" give it all up and "no" dun give up. it's all part and parcel of ministry. If there's a ministry that wouldnt cause any of that, i will be the first to join. haha...

it was a good weekend at MM'05. I wasn't having great expectations about what i will learn this time and i wasn't really superbly looking forward to going for it. It was just a normal kind of feeling. But i thank God that i've learnt and am encouraged once again. God never fails to speak to his people through his word because he is a speaking God.

Paul, the apostle was an example for us. Even though he was faced with so many trials and difficulties, he never wavered in terms of preaching the gospel. He still persevered and went on with it. He endured the hardship for the sake of preaching Jesus. He was so focused to what He was doing and fully trusted in God. (1 Thess) I hope i would not lose heart easily because of the great incentive - God's mercy.

With truth comes godly living. This is the ideal case. Knowing about Jesus and what He has done for us is not sufficient, we need to respond with our lives reflecting this truth. If we are so into truth and neglects godliness, then all the stuff learnt is useless and is just head knowledge. It's likely that mankind of this age would fall into because we like to challenge our minds and learn about new stuff. So, we need to pray. Asking God to help us walk the talk. :)

Praying and preaching goes hand in hand. We tend to be in tension towards the mindset of praying: knowing that we can't change God's mind thru prayers and He already knows what we want to say before we say it. With this tension plus excuses, prayers may subside. So, it was a great reminder that we need to adopt a right attitude towards prayer and continue to rely on God.

This brings me to another point, it is God who makes all things possible in preaching, the end result, the process, the beginning. It's not what we can do. We are only mouth pieces for God's word to be preached. John Chapman gave examples of how he was pushed out of his comfort zone to preach and how uncomfortable and nervous he got. But instead of chickening out, he trusted in Jesus and he was able to deliver the message of the cross in these circumstances. Many a times, we chicken out because we are not familiar with the people, the surroundings etc... we shd trust that it is God who will speak to them, thru His spirit. We continue to pray that we will want to share the gospel. :)

there are many things i have learnt but these are what i could rem off-hand now. hehe...

may we all continue to persevere in serving God in sharing the gospel and praying. May we also be people who show Christ in our lives cos it's for His name sake!