Dear readers, I have been scratching my head on how to write my heart out for this blog. Forgive me if it's not a good one. In another 1 month, I will be turning 1 year old in Christ. Time flies; within a year I noticed I have grown a lot in my spiritual walk as well as in my life itself. Thank God for always giving me wisdom. I believe starting off in a good church plays a major role in my growth. The good church I meant here is City Harvest Church Singapore. A lot of good values have been taught through sermons by renowned pastors from all over the world, constant follow up by cell group members and the effort being put by all parties to produce a "true" spiritual family; everyone has indeed done a great job thanks to the will of God whom has placed each of us with a different role. But despite all these positive things you can gain, there will be times whereby you will be negatively influenced because every church has its strength and weaknesses. Every church is ran by men and as long as there is men there will be no perfection because men is never perfect but only God is. However, most people do not understand and they will be easily blinded by evil which lies within themselves.
I shall begin talking about my church which is a very commercialised, huge, popular and rich one. Initially I used to think that a church needs not be so "exxagerative" and if the church is rich enough we should be focused on how to build the smaller churches instead. In fact, most churches of this kind have become a source of entertainment to many especially the youths. It is treated as a place to look for a boyfriend or girlfriend, a place for fun activities and a place to gossip. It is not surprising that you can hear plenty of gossips or rumours just within a cell group alone. Besides that, a lot of people treat it as a place to network and build their business. The bigger the church is, the more hierachical politics people will tend to engage in. Members trying to surpass each other to obtain a position in a ministry or trying to become a pastor. Similar to a workplace, there are full timers who complain about their wages and the unfair treatment they receive. Slowly, it has become a place to compete and to seek power, fame and money. Sadly, this leads to major dissapointment in a lot of people. I have met several backsliders and anti Christs whom have shared with me the reason why they left church and why they never believe in Christians respectively. Notice I just mentioned "they never believe in ChristIANS" and not CHRIST.
Then when I visited a small church not long ago, I realised there is a big difference between my church and that one. I would say the sermon was not very impactful. There was no atmosphere and the environment was rather dull. I saw plenty of the members were asleep and some were not paying attention. If that's the case, aren't them attending service just for the sake of attending? How about new visitors? Will this church lead them to Christ or create an interest for them to visit the church again? And is this church able to bring about growth in that particular person? I also started to realised that God has indeed blessed my church to have such growth and annointed pastors. Eventhough my church is big and rich, but it doesn't mean it has to stop there. God still needs to use us mightily to save more and more people. That was the moment when God gave me an inspiration to write about this in my blog. Hallelujah. Well, I have always told people that God works wonders in us in whichever ways. AMEN.
When I view it in a positive way, I saw there is actually a big room for improvement for that church and I truly salute a sister whom had transferred from a big church to this one as she sees the need to serve there and to develop the church. From there it will be able to reach out to more people. She is really a pure child of God!!! Our fire on God must keep on going eventhough there is no concert ambience or surround sound system like what we had in Singapore Expo. Like I said, every church has its strength and weaknesses and different churches use different approach. Some are focused on youths, some are focused on elderly, some on English and some on Chinese and other dialects. It doesn't matter which church you go, big or small but I would say you got to look for one that suits your characteristics and needs in order for you to grow spiritually. But sad to say once again, every church encounters the same problem which is men's attitude and behaviour itself. A lot of Christians are still living in their own world where there is pride, selfishness, greed and foolishness.
Regardless of all that, seeking God is something simple and pure. We are truly seeking and serving God Himself and not human. So why are we blinded by human's works? When a man fails you, you say Christians are hypocrites... and yes you just said it! It's ChristIANS and not Christ. We have to stand firm in our faith and believe in Christ! Do not put a blame on other human but it is the evil or temptation beneath us that make us backslide. To counter this problem, you got to defeat this evil in you. Pray for wisdom. When we learn, we absorb and gather the good knowledge. And if you are wise enough, you will gather the bad ones as well and make it good. I watched a sermon on tv before saying that God always uses somebody to give us something. Even it is of evil, God allows it to happen because He wants to build us in every aspect of our lives. If we are able to withstand the temptation and remain faithful, we are promised with the gateway to Heaven. Amen.
