MHI-SF CAMP

What an amazing 2.5 days at Salvation Army. Indeed let us give thanks to God for a wonderful time of fellowship and learning together. Not forgetting the protection of our health and safety in all the activities.

There is so much to write about the past 2.5 days and i would like to ask for your help. Can you send me your views, comments, testimonies and thoughts so we can compile and post it all up?

For all those who did take pictures, please bring them to MHI so we can all share them together this weekend :)

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope
for and certain of what we do not see"
Hebrews 11:1

June E Highlights.

On 14th June, we looked at the 4th Session of Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. This time, we were looking into How to be more Christlike.

Working out is your part
Working in is God's part
Ephesians 2
How does God help us to be Christlike?

God's tools :

1) His Word - All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

It will change your character.
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.Romans 10:17

2) Holy Spirit

3) Circumstances - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.Romans 8:28-29
God brings good out of bad.

3 choices we have to make that will help us to be more Christlike :

1) We have to change what we think about.
What we feel affects our thinking, and eventually our actions.
to be made new in the attitude of your minds;Ephesians 4:23
If you change using willpower alone, you will be stress and go back to old ways.

2) Depend on God - Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. -John 15:4-5
Depends on your prayer life

3) Respond the way Jesus did

Following Jesus is a process, not a 1 time thing.

PDL - Made for Relationships

For Sunday Fellowship on 31st May 2009, we had another series of Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. The topic we focused on was 'Made for Relationships'.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

In Romans 12:9-16, it states that God wants us to have fellowship with the church, which is, other fellow Christians. However, there are 5 blocks we have to overcome in order to have true relationships.

1st Block - Authencity.
We should take off our "masks" and be truthful to others. "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth." 1 John 1:6 says that when we lie, we fool ourselves, not others.

2nd Block - Courtesy.
"to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men." Titus 3:2 tells us to respect and love like a brother.
An example : If someone has a problem and comes to talk to you about it, you have to be willing to listen instead of trying to resolve the issue on the spot. This is validation and tactfulness, showing that you understand that if you were in the other person's shoes, you wouldn't have known what to do.

3rd Block - Mutuality.
It's a 2 way relationship on "you care, I care". For those who have studied Biology, the definition of mutualism is "a relationship between 2 organisms in which both organisms benefit."
"If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" - Ecclesiastes 4:10
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."
According to Hebrews 10:24, we should consistantly give mutual encouragement, mutual honoring and mutual accountability to our fellow community.

4th Block - Hospitality
"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts," - Acts 2:46
"Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." - 2 Timothy 2:22

5th Block - Unity
"Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." - Romans 12:16
Humility is an important aspect to being united.

Bible Giants - Queen Esther by Patrick/Aunty Renee

From:
the book of Esther old testament

Key characters:
Esther
King Xerces
Mordecai - Esther's cousin
Haman - the court official

Story summary:
The story tells of how a beautiful young jewish girl was chosen to be the queen by the king of persia (Xerces).Her cousin Mordecai, who was also serving in the palace, was happy to see Esther being chosen as the queen.Morcecai discovered a plot by the King's enemies to kill the King. He quickly informed Esther and the plot was disovered and the guilty parties was killed. The King was informed by Esther that Mordecai was the person who saved him.

In a separate incided, Haman - a top court official passing through the palace gates and noticed that Mordecai did not bow to him. This is because Jews do not bow to anyone except God.That infuriated Haman and he plotted to kill all Jews by tricking the King to pass a decree.When this was make known, Mordecai was very sad and he cried and mourned. Esther came to know of this decree and wanted to save her people.

She asked Mordecai to instruct them to fast and pray for 3 days while she seeks an audience with the King and thus risking her life by doing so.

Through her faith in God, he managed to exposed the plot of Haman to the King. The king was furious and ordered Haman to be hanged. The King also granted the Jews the rights to defend themselves.

This is a story of the true courage of queen Esther and her great faith in God that we all should follow.

This coming Sunday!!!

Since we met 2 weeks back sharing on What on Earth Am I here For, the next series of Purpose Driven Life drills deeper into the 5 reasons why you and I were born...

This SUNDAY, we look at the very first reason - WORSHIP.

What does that mean?

Join us at 1130am this Sunday after service as we discover more :)

Philippines Outreach Trip 2009 Sharing - 19 Apr

It was great to see so many of you here 2 Sundays ago. The team was glad to be able to share our experiences in Philippines and God's love with you!

Remember how this video has reminded you of His unconditional love for us:


Other than the photos and testimonies, we also want to share with you this performance put up by the both the deaf and hearing students in Laguna School:


Do continue to approach any of the team members, we still have many stories to tell you =)

Why Pray?

Have you wondered whether prayer makes a difference? If more people pray for the same thing, does it mean God will place more preference in ensuring that it will come through?

If someone is ill and had only 1 person pray for him, will the outcome be different if more people pray for him - including his friends, family and even his church praying together. Does it mean that the person has a better chance of being healed?

Does God listen? Does God hear our prayers? Tell me what you think...

perhaps join us this Sunday at 1130am YWCA, DIC for a time of prayer together.

The Reason for Everything - 26th Apr

This week after a long absence from Purpose Driven Life, we watched the last video entitled "the reason for everything" by Pastor Rick Warren. And what a fantastic video to summarise the entire series on "why are we here on earth?".


"God made it all for his glory. The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God.

As humans created by God we are commanded to recognise God’s glory, honour his glory, praise his glory, reflect his glory, and live for his glory. Why? Because God deserves it!

In the entire universe, only two of God’s creations fail to bring glory to him: fallen angels (demons) and us (people). Not giving God his due glory is called “sin.” All sin, at its
root, is failing to give God the glory he deserves"

"everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."
~ Isaiah 43:7

Just like birds, who chirp, fly, nest - they fulfill God's purpose for creating them. As God's creation, we too are asked to fulfill God's purpose for us, which is to glorify Him.

The video talked about 5 purposes we have on earth that will glorify God.

1) we bring glory to God when we Worship Him
do we just do this in church every Sunday?

2) we bring glory to God when we Love others
have we showed love to our family, our friends, fellow believers?

3) we bring glory to God when we become Like Christ
what characteristics of Jesus do you admire? His compassion? Patience?

4) we bring glory to God when we Serve others
can we think of ways this can be done every week in MHI?

5) we bring glory to God when we Tell others about Him
when was the last time we shared something about God to others?

none of the above is easy or may come naturally to all of us. As we discussed on Sunday, let us try to practice one of the above to glorify God. I will personally come and ask how you did :)

See you soon.


*excerpts from Purpose Driven Life pg 49-59. Cartoon from Joyful'toons.

Coming this Sunday.....Philippines Trip Review!!

Remember our team of guys who went to Laguna in March?
This coming Sunday @ MHI, the team will be giving
their insights to their week long experience...

Come Join Us and Hear How Their
Lives Have Been Transformed

YWCA, 8th Floor,
DIC, 1130am

The Grace of God (Ps Lawrence Seow)

review by Joyce Neo

God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! - Titus 2:11 (The Message version)

Sometimes when we look around us, we feel we are better than others. In school, we think we are smarter than our classmates, in sports, we think we can run faster than our friends, at work, we think we can finish our work faster and more efficiently, even at home, we think we are a better child compared to our siblings. Even in church, sometimes we look down on others because we feel we are more spiritual.....

Are we really better? or are we forgetting something?

We often forget God's Grace for us.
3 main points from the sermon -

1. Salvation from sin. We are indeed saved from our sins - the past, present and future. But we need to confess and repent.
2. God paid the price. It is not something you did that God has saved you. Jesus died for us and that was the price that was paid. In life, it is not always easy to please others. But, please God instead. Get rid of the stronghold the world has on us.
3. Sinful, but God set His Grace on us. It is by God's Grace that we are saved. do not forget this very important point. Yes, we are still sinners but we are saved by Jesus and Jesus alone.

In our daily lives, we forget Him although He loves and cares for us. He knows our needs. We pray to Him. Without God, our lives can be really messed up. Sometimes we mess up our own life by own actions because we have no direction or purpose. That is why we need God. God is our greatest Saviour.

Eternal life is our reward from God when we go to heaven. Share God’s grace in prayers.

Do not shameful of the gospel.
Preaching the gospel is our duty of sharing. We need compassion to do it. Grace of God is the salvation. Tell people that you are not shameful of the gospel.

Editor : thanks to joyce for the update. more to come.
cartoon by joyfultoons

Road to Calvary....

Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com

Some of you must have wondered what is the big fuss with Easter...
After all, almost all countries in the world consider this a public holiday.

Why is this occasion so special?

2 weeks ago, Patrick brought us back 2000 years to the day this all started. It began with a donkey ride into town.........

Follow the preso by Patrick and find out what happened next....

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Easter Celebrations !!!

I had a fantastic time at Easter Cup yesterday. The rain held out till we finished our last game and started to eat. It was competitive but was played in such a gracious and sporting manner! Well done to everyone!!!!

This whole week, we had quite a few activities starting from :-

• Road to Calvary/Jerusalem by Patrick/Victor
  
• Sunday's meeting with Rob George who taught us many new "tricks" about sharing the word,
• 3 sermons by Rev Lawrence Seow who really brought God's word to light in a funny manner,
• to Good Friday service,
• Easter Cup
• to today's story about the resurrection of Christ by Caroline/Patrick and Renee's Easter Egg.....

We will have a short write up about each of these activities so that all of us won't forget about them :) If you would like to post or link any of your articles, please let me know ok? leave a comment on the chat.

Men's MHI Meeting

Hi all, we had our first Men's meeting at DIC last Saturday.

There was food followed by a time of watching a video. Nooma is a great series of video created by Pastor Rob Bell to teach and help us learn more about our faith. We watched the episode Trees which speaks about life on earth, why are we here and what we are to do :)

Thanks to Adrian, Amos, Anthony (so many As hahaha), Clement,Eugene, Guo Cheng, Ryan, and Victor who made the session so lively.

Join us next month !!!

THIS WEEKEND : IMPORTANT EVENTS!!!

1st MHI MEN's FELLOWSHIP
DATE : Saturday, 28th March
TIME : 1pm
VENUE : DIC, YWCA

And reminder for Family Life Worship
*there will be no interpretation at the main service.

DATE : Sunday, 29th MARCH
TIME : 10am
VENUE : YWCA, 1st Floor

Life Is a Temporary Assignment - 22nd March

Lets praise God for the safe return of all our team members from Laguna. It was such an exciting trip and the team has so much to share with all of us from their experiences. Look out for the official debrief date. We want to thank the Lord for being with the team throughout their trip and the impact the trip had on everyone.

Last week the video continued with "Life is a Temporary Assignment". We spoke earlier that life is a TEST, a TRUST and a TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT. What does that mean?

Basically, the video reminded us that our life does not end when we breathe our last breath on earth. We are not home yet! Pastor Warren reminds us that "God’s Word compares life on earth to temporarily living in a foreign country. This is not your permanent home or final destination." We are now ambassadors for Christ on earth.

Our identity should be focus on eternity and once we understand this concept, we would not be focus in chasing all the things on earth. "It is a fatal mistake to assume that God’s goal for your life is material prosperity or popular success, as the world defines it. The abundant life has nothing to do with material abundance, and faithfulness to God does not guarantee success in a career or even in ministry. Never focus on temporary crowns.”

Life on earth is a preparation for eternity which is even better than what earth has to offer. Instead what shall we do?

We are asked to focus our eyes on things unseen for what is unseen is eternal. God is more interested in building our characters than our comfort. Let us remember John the Baptist who remained faithful to God yet was beheaded or Paul who was imprisoned. "In God’s eyes, the greatest heroes are not those who achieve prosperity, success, and power in this life, but those who treat this life as a temporary assignment and serve faithfully, expecting their promised reward in eternity."

So brothers and sisters? What shall we do?
Do we continue to store up our treasures on earth or should
we all learn to treat our lives on earth as a temporary assignment?

cartoon from joyfultoons

Outreach Trip - Laguna, Philippines

Many of you may have wondered where the team went? Well, here is a little post about the Deaf School in Laguna. The school (marked A) is about 2 hours from Manila, the capital city of Philippines.

To get there, you would need to take about a 90 minutes car ride to the bottom of the hill. After that, you have 2 choices to get up to the school.

• By tractor, which will take another 30 minutes
• By walking the 8km trek

As the roads are not tarred, it can get really muddy when it rains and make it difficult to climb. The air is fresh and its surrounded by an amazing view. I will not spoil the surprise from the trippers and await them to tell you more :)

*picture from googlemaps

You may click on this link to find out more about the school and DEAF, Inc.

MHI Outreach Team - Laguna, Philippines

Anthony is leading a group of 11 to the Christian Deaf School in Laguna, Philippines.

Want to find our more where they are going? Watch out the next few days.

Seeing Life from God's View

Last SUNDAY, we welcomed PengPeng, Jasmine, Anthony, Alan and Shifeng to SF . It was good to see friends from MHI's past and our fellowship was definitely enriched with their presence. We all look forward to having fellowship with them again on the 22nd March.

In the video by Pastor Rick Warren, he asked us what is our life's metaphor (image/symbol/analogy)? What is yours? A pack of cards? A roller coaster? A puzzle? A party? We are reminded the metaphor we have of our lives will reflect the way we live our lives. If we think of life like a party, then all we aim to do is to have fun. If we think of life as a competition, our life will be just about winning. Is your life metaphor based on the world's metaphor of success?

The bible mentions 3 metaphors that teach us about God's view on life.

• Life is a test
• Life is a trust
• Life is a temporary assignment (next session)

Our entire life is a test!! Wow.... Our characters are developed and revealed through test that God has given to us. "We will be tested by major changes, by delayed promises, by impossible problems, by unanswered prayers and by undeserved criticism." During these tests, there will be moments that we will not feel the presence of God just like King Hezekiah (read 2 Chronicles 32). What do we do in moments like these? Do we turn our backs on Him? Do we give up? Let us all understand that God will never test us beyond our capabilities and will always give us strength to endure them. Do read 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Our life is also a trust. The "energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, and resources are all gifts that God has entrusted to our care and management." We were reminded that God has placed us as stewards and guardians for these things. One item which the video specifically highlighted is money. Are we good managers of our money? Does the manner in which we manage money prevents God from doing more in our lives?

Indeed life is a test and a trust. What are YOU going to do about it? Let us all reflect on these points. Here is a quick summary from Lynette on pdf.

Publish at Scribd or explore
Cartoon from Joyfultoons

A Reminder To All !

This SUNDAY church service is at 830 am !

It's the 124th anniversary of Wesley Methodist Church

This Sat, there is badminton practice @ 330pm :)
Kindly refer to the section MHI Events for more details.

Thanks!

See you all over this weekend !