Should Christians Leave Church?

A Newsweek author Andrew Sullivan wrote an article Christianity in Crisis in which he said Christians should leave the church and worship Jesus individually. Essentially he said, "Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists," and that Christians should walk away from the church all together and follow the teachings of Jesus individually.”

There are certainly problems in the Church but to leave Church altogether does not solve any problem. Many commentators disagreed with his assessment.

We can see from the New Testament that a gathering of believers to worship and encourage each other was a pattern set up when the first Church was instituted. Christians are encouraged to congregate to worship as well as to encourage and support one another. How is an individual going to do that? Even if you have a strong will, you are bound to be discouraged sometimes in your life. Without any support, you are sure to go your own way, and not what God wants you to do.

Leaving the Church is not an option as far as the Asian experience is concerned.

Martin Luther said, "he who would find Christ must first find the Church."

Ecclesiastes 4:9 “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor”

To read an article click on the title of this post.

How to Find Hope in Any Situation

This summary is based on Dr.Kenneth Hutcherson’s book, Hope is contagious: Trusting God in the Face of Any Obstacle. In our life we are bound to face ups as well as the downs. Thankfully we have a God who gives us hope in any circumstance, even if your health fails, you lose your job, your spouse leaves, or other tragedy hits you. I find these guides helpful, and I pray that they are helpful to you too.

Here is how to find hope in any situation.

Stop simply surviving and start thriving. Don’t let difficult circumstance stop you from making the most of each day you are alive. Life is a gift from God and you can enjoy it to the fullest even in the middle of difficult situation. Pray for the Holy Spirit to renew your mind everyday so that you have the positive attitude to thrive no matter the circumstance.

Choose to trust. No matter what happens to you, trust God, He does not make any mistake. God allows things to happen for a purpose in your life.

Learn and grow from your struggles. God allows challenging situations in your life so that you can learn to trust Him in deeper ways, and you can grow more mature, develop stronger characters to be more like Jesus. Pray to God to let you see the difficulties from His perspective. Let the struggles teach you whatever God wants you to learn.

Resist temptations to sin. In trying circumstances, do not turn to sin because you will never find your solution there. Instead pray to God to help you resist temptations God will respond by giving you comfort you can’t find anywhere else.

Attract others to faith as they watch you. Other people are watching you as you deal with your struggles. If you response in faith in Jesus people will be drawn to Him by your examples. Let them see your faith in actions. Rather than wallowing in your difficulties, have faith in God and show others how Jesus’ light shine in your life even in difficult situations.

Want what God wants for you. God knows what is good for you. Sometimes He does not give you what you asked because He knows better. God has a greater perspective than you, so trust in Him to know your needs. Also pray to Him that your desires are in line with His will for you.

Overcome fear. Do not be afraid because God is always with us and He has our interests in mind because He loves us. When fear creep into your life, turn to God for help, He will help you to navigate out of the situation.

Keep heaven in mind. Let the anticipation of heaven motivates you to meet your current challenges with hope which will strengthen you to overcome your situations.

Don’t give up. As you face tough situations, do not give up, pray to God to renew you with a fresh dose of hope to deal with your situations. Be confident that at the right time God will reward you for your faithfulness if you do not give up your faith in trying circumstances. Count on God.

Easter Sunday

Easter is a significant date for Christians all over the world. We at FBC, Kuching are no different and we mark this day with worship, prayers and praises to God. This Easter is another historic event for our Church as this is the first Easter we celebrated at our new facility. Elder Dr.Tiong shared this morning that actually our Church started 40 years ago in Kuching on 2nd April 1972.

This morning service was a joyous occasion for our members as well as invited guests. Because we were able to worship together with friends. Majority of our guests were from Kuching, but a few came from as far as Vancouver, Canada.

Our youths led by Bro.Chung Chek and Sis. Pek Imm performed an Easter skit as well as sang two songs. The performances were entertaining. Praise God for our young people! As part of our worship, the flag bearers worshiped as the worship songs were sang. The bearers were led by Sis. Lily Ngu.

Dr. Thomas Chung preached an Easter message especially on the death of Jesus and its meaning. He pointed out three significant points what Jesus did for us.

1. He carried the sins of mankind.
2. He was made sin although He was sinless.
3. He carried our curse, the spiritual death of human who do not know Christ.

He said all heavens and earths have been shaken. In the realm of politics, economics, social, and even natural systems e.g earthquakes. Jesus is shaking everything until those that cannot be shaken will remain. Those who do not know Jesus will have a meaningless life. We can have eternal life only if we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. There is no other way. Towards the end of the service Dr.Chung challenged those who do not know Jesus to come and accept Him as their personal Savior.

He is risen! He is Alive!

Easter Sunday 2012 - Online Slideshow Maker

Social Media Easter

John 11:25

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die".

The Story of Easter Told Through Social Networking from neids on GodTube.

Why Good Friday

Many believed that “Good Friday” is derived from “God’s Friday”. This seems like a reasonable evolution of language as “Good bye” is derived from “God be with you”.

Let us stop and think through why we called it “good” when a human was crucified on the cross. Crucifixion is a terrible way to die. If we do not stop and think for a while, it is easy to assume that this significant Christian day “Good Friday” is just what we Christians refer to this day, the day Jesus was crucified on the cross.

It is amazing that the “good” of Good Friday is part of the “good” declared by God during Creation. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31, NIV). The fallen state was no good, man sinned, but the redemption by the death of Jesus for the atonement of man’s sins was part of the “good” of God’s creation.

The event of Jesus’ death on the Cross was certainly not good, and Good Friday is not about this event. Good Friday is about the result of this terrifying event. It was Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross which resulted in the cleansing of our sins, He took our sins, and gave us eternal life. The result – His Redemption is one of the greatest gifts to mankind. By the grace of God this is the goodness that He gave us freely especially to those who accept Jesus as their personal Savior.

Church of God Face Book

Since the advent of social media like Face Book (fb) many organizations whether profit or non profit have used this media to communicate with their target audience. Churches also see the usefulness of social media in engaging with their members as well as the public. In Malaysia many non profit organizations including churches are also using fb to reach their targets.

Church of God of the US has recently created history by gathering almost 50,000 "likes" on their fb page. This is not a big number on fb. The church is very encouraged by the response of the public to their daily Bible verses posted as well as information regarding their church. Thank God that this media is enaging more people to read and understand the Bible. There is another Christian fb page "Jesus Daily" that currently has 12.4 million "likes"! We can see that this media is effective in reaching people.

Statistics of which age groups are reading is also available on fb. Church of God found that the highest "likes" came from age group 18-24 years which made up 24% of the total "likes".

To read further click on the title of this post.

First Sunday Service At New FBC

Today is a historic day for our church FBC as we started our first Sunday service at our brand new building. For the past 20 over years we have been renting various premises. The last one was at Wisma Saberkas in Kuching city.

Today we start a new chapter at our new premise. Like our elder Dr.Tiong shared this morning that we are indeed very thankful to God for providing us this beautiful and functional new building. He also thanked the many members who have contributed in one way or another to the successful completion of this project. Praise God and thank God for His provisions!

This morning everyone was excited to be in the new building. A brother joked that it was like first day of Chinese New year when we wear new clothes to celebrate the new year. We celebrated His faithfulness and gifts to us!

All three language groups English, Mandarin, and Iban worshiped almost at the same time this morning. In the old church we have to take turn because of lack of space. Now, Praise God we have ample space for all three congregations to worship at the same time! The English congregation occupied the main sanctuary, the Mandarin used the Chapel, and the Iban have their unique worship hall on the top floor of the building. There are still rooms for other purposes.

Bro. Song said he was honored to be the first speaker for this new church. He preached on 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He preached with a few stories to illustrate what he wanted to say to our church. A meaningful message of Jesus dying on the Cross for us as we approach Good Friday.

Hallelujah! Praise God for giving us a new building!

First Sunday Service - Slideshow Creator