Happy New Year. Be blessed and be a blessing!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

A reminder from our dear Brian

Dear fellow brothers and sisters,

It’s sad that I can’t be with you guys tonight in this wonderful service. But I just want to give you guys a short message of encouragement. The Lord has been gracious to me. So far, I’m almost done with my preparations to fly to Australia.

But I just want to share this with you guys. Last Sunday, I went to a service at one of the Baptist mission centres in Sandakan. Someone said it was an English service so I went ahead to check it out. But, when I got there, I discovered that the service was conducted in Hakka, lucky me. As the congregation was praying, I was thinking, “Oh no, how la this time. I’m gonna miss the sermon.” But fortunately, the Lord was gracious. Despite my limited knowledge in Hakka, I could understand the overall meaning of what the pastor was saying although during the singing I had to pretend I could read Chinese. Lol.

The service was refreshing as it reminded me that God equips us with all that is necessary to serve Him even though we are at a loss about how we should carry out what He wants us to do. I’m just going to share a bit on what the pastor said as I don’t want to take too much of your time.

The verses for the sermon were taken from Proverbs 22:17-21. You guys can check back on that when you go back home. Mainly, the sermon was about sharing the Word of God, which is a very important part of our Christian lives.

Proverbs 22:17 tells us that we should first equip ourselves with wisdom and understanding. In order to do that, we must have three attitudes of seeking wisdom – listen carefully to the sayings of the wise or the word of God, accept what is being said and understand the Word.

Proverbs 22:18 – 19 tells us that we should feed our spiritual lives with the word of God. We must keep the Word of God in our hearts and set our hearts to the events of the church. That is, as Pastor David said in his previous sermon, we should look after God’s interests. We shouldn’t merely glance through the word of God but rather savour it and digest it slowly so that we obtain the nourishments from it.

Finally, Proverbs 22:20 – 21 tells us to teach or share the Word of God. We must apply the Word of God in our lives such that others can see the changes in us. We should be grounded firmly in the truth so that we do not fall prey to those who distort the truth. The way we live our lives is a powerful testimony of God’s goodness and mercy.

But in sharing the Word of God, remember one thing. God equips each and every one of us for His good works. We should rely on the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of man. In my stay in Melbourne, I’ve been given the privilege to become roommates with a non-Christian friend of mine. Do pray that God will touch His heart as I share with Him the goodness of God. Let’s win one more soul for God!

I pray that CA will continue to flourish under the new committee by the grace of God. May God continue to bless you abundantly as you serve and seek the Lord.


Love,
Brian

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice testimony and sermon. Great translation too. Nice to know that there are fellow Hakkas in CA despite being outnumbered by the numerous Sibu/Sitiawan/Ayer Tawar Foochows.

Brian Chee said...

Lol...I'm a Hokkien actually. Just that my parents communicate with each other in hakka, so i know a bit la...at least, enough to understand basic conversations. =)