Last Sunday, Pao Ru guided our thoughts around the Holy Spirit. Let us recap on what the Holy Spirit help us in our lives.
Help us to witness for Christ
Help us to understand the Bible and remind us everything Jesus taught us
Speaks the word of God to us
Helps us to overcome sin and temptation
Gives us spiritual gifts to serve the Lord
Have you thought about how we can allow the Holy Spirit guide us daily? Go to God today and ask that the Holy Spirit lead you in the things that you do.
We were indeed blessed during the trip. Great job for the tireless presentations from everyone who shared. More details soon. On the way back. All Glory to Him!
On Sunday, we looked at the case for the resurrection. In many ways, the resurrection lays the foundation for the church as we know it today.
What happened after the death on the cross? After Jesus died on the cross, we find in Matthew 27 that Joseph from Arimathea requested for Jesus' physical body. The body was then embalmed (a process used to slow down the process of decay) and wrapped in linen cloth and placed in a tomb with a big stone covering the opening.
Roman guards were placed to ensure the disciples would not steal the body. On Sunday when the women went to the tomb, Jesus' body was no longer there. He has risen.
Where is the proof?
1 Corinthians 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Many people including me would ask for proof of the resurrection. What "evidence" do we have? We did explore a few possibilities
1) Jesus' appearances to many
Visual nature (Jesus ate, walked and spoke) to His disciples (Luke 24/John 20)
Was seen by over 500 people at once (1 Cor 15) and this was recorded by Paul, a persecutor of Christian who was transformed later on.
The risen Jesus made a scheduled appearance in Galilee (Mark 14)
Including his brother James who did not believed Jesus himself (1 Cor 15)
2) Transformation of the disciples
Disciples were an afraid bunch of people but were later transformed and were willing to die for Jesus.
We can die for our friends, but not for a lie!!
3) Empty tomb
Jerusalem was the place in which Jesus died and the start of the preaching about His resurrection. The people knew of Jesus and would not have believed the disciples if the knew that they were being lied too.
Women were not fit to give trial during those times. It would not have been logical to appear to women and tell everyone unless it was the truth.
Roman soldiers (honoured soldiers) were guards of the tomb and took their jobs with pride.
4) Historical evidences
Creed that was used by the early church (1 Cor 15)
Notes from historians including Josephus/Pilate/Thallus
Does is matter to us? Yes, it certainly does. With Jesus' resurrection, we now have eternal life. We are forgiven of our sins and reminded that the basis of our faith in Jesus is indeed real. A few more points are mentioned in the pdf below. Conclusion : What shall we do? We can start to learn to apply what Jesus taught us. To forgive others, to share the story of His resurrection and begin to seriously bear our cross daily.
There are 2 major parts in justifying the resurrection. One would be the historical road and the other, a personal road. Both would lead to the same conclusion of indeed Jesus did die and is now resurrected.
We have seen the historical road. Do our lives have the personal relationship with Jesus that indeed we can say without doubt, He is truly the Son of God and our lives?
*Notes are adapted from Norman Wong's Can you answer these Questions? Includes points from http://sguthrie.net/resurrection.htm and http://www.garyhabermas.com/
A Big Thank You to Joyce and XueHui for their expert knowledge in transforming our website so its COOler
This will not be the finish product so if you have any ideas and things you want to add, do let us know. Like our relationship with God, we will always be looking to keep it Fresh and Updated.
Last Sunday, we had the privilege of learning about prayer.
1 John 5:14-15 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Do we need to learn how to pray? yes, In Luke 11:1 [ Jesus' Teaching on Prayer ] One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
Why do we pray?
Because Jesus did Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
To ask for what we need 1 John 5:14-15 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anythingaccording to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
To build faith! 1 John 5:14-15 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 Andif we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
To defend against the devil’s attacks Ephesians 6 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes… 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests Conclusion:
God uses prayer to build our faith
devil is always trying to tempt us, lie to us, confuse us.
even in church, the devil constantly tries to cause confusion and disagreement, to break the unity we have with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
but God protects us, and prayer is one of the tools that God has given us to protect us this way, we pray, then God kicks the devil away, then we see that God really does help us when we ask, then our faith increases.
5 Oct - Prayer meetingSUNDAY at 11.30am in MHI Centre. Let’s gather together in the name of Christ and pray for our the ministry concerns, especially for the students having examinations and the Penang Trippers. 11/12th Oct - WMC Ministry Focus -MHIAwareness Weekend is on next Sat/Sunday Do wear your black or maroon MHI T-shirts (if you have) on that day when you are in service
19th Oct - Continuation of our 7 Basic Beliefs touching on "Jesus Rose from the Dead" Ever ask yourself whether Jesus did indeed rise from the dead? Perhaps you have doubted before? Lets come and discover and challenge ourselves with questions....there is no question too small nor too silly
26th Oct - "The Holy Spirit" & "The Church as One Body".
This SUNDAY we had the opportunity to discover who Jesus is/was? Why did He come to die for you and I?
1. Jesus is GOD How do we know that Jesus was indeed God? Fully God and fully human.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and theWord was God. John 1:14 The Word becameflesh and made his dwelling(lived) among us……
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23 too that God is with us. (Do look it up in your bibles :-) 2. Jesus died on the cross to save ALL OF US
To heal US from disease (1 Peter 2:24)
To free US from slavery
As a sacrificial lamb for US (Moses, Jews ...its all in Exodus)
Everything Jesus did, He did it for US. Doesn't that make us so special? Then we watched a short clip of The Passion of the Christ and many of us like me must have felt our hearts "turn" a little and must have felt the pain that Jesus had to suffer.
Real life application. What should we do?
Practice Justice & Mercy with one another
Make Peace with one another
Learn to Love one another
Change all Evil things into Good
I know its easier said than done. Lets start and try ONE of the four applications in our life today. Perhaps with our family, school classmates, colleagues, friends, MHI members even.
Last SUNDAY morning we took a babystep in evolving the structure of SF
SF will be setup based on 3 main components 1) Worship 2) Teaching 3) Sharing (Small Group format) *powerpoint preso below
Why do we meet in SF?
Hebrews 10:24-25 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
1) Worship Worship is not just singing/signing or the expression of our feelings just before the start of a service. It is not something that is separate from teaching/sharing but a continuous act of submission and praise to God.
In Revelation 4&5 (you can download the powerpoint preso), we see thousands of angels praising and worshiping God and His greatness. Singing/Signing gives us a time to focus our minds on God and forget our worries of the week. We are called to lay down our worries at His feet and worship allows us to just concentrate on Him.
2) Teaching The sharing of the word will be done progressively. For the first few sessions, we will go through the basics of our beliefs. Later on, we will be following a book series that involve many many fun activities that will allow us to know God more intimately :-)
3) Sharing (Small Group format) The most important part of SF will be the sharing among ourselves. In the bible, you will get many qoutes of "one another". This is a reminder that our journey with God is not alone. We are asked to live with one another, encourage one another, share with one another........and the greatest commandment of all, to love one another.
Living with God is not an isolated path....and in smaller groups, we will be able to edify (encourage), challenge and grow together. SF will be an opportunity for all of us to meet up and share our lives.
We will publish articles, future events, SF bible study notes and all things MHI in this blog. Please do contribute any topics, link to this blog and shout it out loud to everyone you know.
This blog presents a milestone as we grow to reach out to ALL generations of MHIers. God has indeed given us many mediums to share his word and I am glad we are using blogs now :-)
(v 24-25) These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. (The Message)
We were indeed blessed during the trip. Great job for the tireless presentations from everyone who shared. More details soon. On the way back. All Glory to Him!
