Time flies and abounds indeed with blessings from the Lord. The dawn of 10 April 2008 has brought to light yet another eventful and memorable point for CA, being, after all, the second last gathering of the semester. Due to a number of tests next week, CA had been brought forward to accommodate the majority. So gathered we for another fantastic evening of praise and worship in NLRC’s Youth Centre, sizzling with excitement and aflame for Christ. The atmosphere was jolly as usual, amidst much chatter and fellowshipping before CA began.
before CA began...
The theme for CA this time around was catchy indeed, namely “Can Gua…”. The attendance was fairly encouraging, a group of some 50 young people having gathered to worship and extol His name. At around 7.45 pm, our emcees Patricia and Timothy started the meeting on a light note with some jokes and casual interactions, before welcoming the newcomers and consequently summoning Andersen to lead the prayers.
Why she looks so excited?
Let move on...
Next came the ice-breaking session, led by Christine. We were asked to find a partner to play what seemed to be perhaps a grossly modified version of the age-old classical “rock-paper-scissors” game, this time using facial expressions and actions instead of hand signals. For instance, to represent the choice of paper, we would have to stick out our tongues ~ hilarious as it may seem!
mouse trap!!!
The master and the losers...
The worship soon after was started off on an upbeat note with the song “My Best Friend”, led by Dian Han with a full-power band made up of back-up singers Mary Chen and Wei Xin, and musicians Andersen, Bryan, Chewie and Grace. The congregation also sang several other songs including “Touching Heaven and Changing Earth”, “Open The Eyes Of My Heart”, “For Who You Are”, and “From The Inside Out”. Brimming with vigour were the young people, praising the name of the Lord. Indeed had His divine presence dwelled amongst us then, touching the hearts of many. Dian Han then led us into a quiet time of prayer, before the offerings.
The word that followed shortly was given by Pastor Joshua Lee of NLRC Kota Kemuning. An inspiring speaker, he had preached on “a life of no compromise”, drawing on myriad down-to-earth illustrations peppered with good-witted humour that made the message an interesting one. We were taken on a journey of discovery on issues relevant and close to the teenager’s heart, had our preconceived notions challenged, and above all, were reminded of God’s faithfulness in helping us fight sin, given that, of course, we first take the initiative to resist evil in the first place. As Christians, we should live a life of no compromise, pleasing and acceptable to the Lord, and of course, avoiding sin. For we are frail, attempts at overcoming temptations by virtue of our own strength and willpower alone will inevitably prove futile; hence, we should turn to God for His empowerment and help when faced with temptations. We need as such to only take the first step in battling sin by praying for divine intervention, trusting in his faithfulness and resting in the assurance that God will do the rest. Pastor Joshua had also shed light on the popular misconception regarding holiness, that, by God’s grace, all of us have in fact been made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ shed upon the cross. Praise be to the Lord for his unfailing grace and mercy!
Pastor Joshua
Worship then resumed with the song “From The Inside Out”, during which we were also asked to join with the person next to us in prayer. After that, the emcees then took over, cracking a joke or two and livening up the atmosphere again, before passing over the time to the worship team for the closing song, “My Best Friend”. Hence ended CA on perhaps as equally buoyant a note as it had started, spirits high and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord.
T’was indeed a magnificent evening, meaningful and purposeful, directed to the Lord, of glory all given back to Him. By God’s grace, everything had worked out fine as planned without any snags. May the seeds be sown in the hearts of all who attended the CA, that His glory be magnified, eventually.
In His service,
Kenlee
On the 3rd of April, Campus Alive gathered together once again for another great session of passionate worship and an inspiring sermon entitled “A Walk To Remember”. Today, we may speak of many walks in life; nevertheless, our speaker for this week, Joash Tan-Loh broadened our perspective to see beyond that. There is only one walk that surpasses all other walks in life, and it is none other than our devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
CA started a little different this week. For a change, our emcees, Andersen and Pei Ling got the crowd warmed up with a song entitled “Salvation Is Here”. The song is a declaration that God has made a way for mankind to attain salvation. Praise the Lord!
After that, we had a games session taken charge by Jia Jeng. The crowd was divided into three groups, and each person received a small piece of paper with a number written on it and highlighted with a color (green, blue or orange). One color represents one group and the objective of the game is to arrange the group members from the smallest number to the biggest number into one queue. The catch is, no one is allowed to speak or show their number using their fingers. Other methods like stomping feet, clapping etc are allowed. The game got the crowd all warmed up and ready to enter the worship atmosphere. 
Grace, an ALG senior and the worship team facilitated the praise and worship session to the Lord. The congregation sang several songs entitled Majesty, Adonai, Your Love Goes On Forever, Indescribable, and Consuming Fire. Truly, our God is majestic, loving, and indescribable and we will always declare His goodness.
Moving on, the Word was taken by Joash and he spoke of devotion. He gave an illustration of a runner throughout the sermon and he focused on 3 main points concerning devotion, namely the purpose of the devotion, the price of the devotion, and the dedication. A walk to remember. What walks do we remember? Yes, significant ones. Achievements, relationships, once in a life time experience. Those walks are worth remembering. How about our walk with God? Our ups and downs in the Christian faith. Times when we are so passionate and times when we slack, times when he Lord picks us up and cleanse us and welcome us children as a loving Father. These significant events in life can be so heart warming, touching and encouraging because they show the unfailing love of God, and glorifies Him completely.
What is a devotion? We can see it as a race where we are all runners whose goal is the finish line. As runners we look forward, not to the side nor to the back. We set our eyes to the prize, the goal, the finish line. So, there is a purpose in our walk. We are devoted to become more like Christ.
How about warming up and preparations? There is a price to a devotion. Lots of effort and energy need to be put in when we’re devoted to something. Training and discipline are also necessities to a devotion. A runner needs to maintain a balanced diet, have loads of intensive training and refrain from drugs, smoking etc while preparing for a race. The more disciplined and well prepared a runner is, he has a higher chance of winning the race. In other words, we have to be prepared to sacrifice when we are devoted.
Lastly, dedication is also vital to devotion whereby one must have the focus and a strong spirits that will never say “I give up”. A runner who gives up easily will not win a race. There are several reasons that cause people to give up. Firstly, the journey is too long, so they are unable to see the end, thus they lose focus and end up giving up. Also, people fall out of the race because they are not prepared enough for it.
That was an outline of Joash’s sharing. The point to ponder is what are we devoted to? It may be to score good grades, to be the top student, to be successful in life, in relationships, and so on. These are so common to us and they compel us to strive for excellence and to try harder. But at many times, because of all these factors, we tend to forget or even deliberately put away our devotion to our Lord and Savior. So, the challenge is to give God a chance to reveal Himself to us and to work in our lives.
Finally, we had a short time of prayer and refreshment prepared by Sze Yin and Hui Theng.
In His service,
Chewie
