Set Apart From The World

"Set Apart From The World"

MYF 28/04/12

1 Peter
The background: A letter written to a group of persecuted Christians for their faith.
                    Even though they were persecuted, they had to submit to the authorities.

How should we react?
If the governing authorities do not do right, God will remove them in time.

Reminder: Repentance
                Guarding our hearts


What is your IDENTITY?

A chosen people:

Chosen to make the idea of one God known to the world

Responsible for sharing the word of God with others.

A royal priesthood:
To upload order

To bring healing

To bring people to God

A holy nation:

Ones set apart to carry God's standards

It doesn't necessarily mean that we then live a hermit's life, but we live in the world, not of the world.

What is our mission then?
To declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into His wonderful light

A people belonging to God:

Sons and daughters of a King

If we are shown mercy, how then do we live differently?

We choose to become a people who choose a different lifestyle:
Eg. We don't operate in a manner to use people.
       We stay watchful of constructive or destructive comments

How do I show my chosenness to God through....
- Social networking?
- My career?
- My school life?
- My life partner? Or my choices towards the future for a life partner?

Ways you can help and show your christian values on twitter or fb:
State something you are grateful for and end with #GreatfulProject


In conclusion,
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.


Idols form your mind.
Give YOUR BODY over to God today and allow him to transform and renew your mind! :)

xx

Guarding Your Heart

There is no denying the world we currently live in is filled with evil, yes.. Evil.. Many people generalize evil to be something magical, something spiritual, something only the "bad guys" contribute to. Well let me tell you here, evil exists in this world not just in the "bad guys" alright? It is here and it is everywhere... Temptation to wrong, greed for money, pride in position, all these are evil too. Now we need to open our eyes to all that is around us, we need to know how the world is.. Now in doing this we are NOT blending in with the world, just KNOWING what is out there.. In knowing what evil awaits us out there in the world, we know what to prepare ourselves for.

Yesterday for myf, Miss Christina Ong shared on Setting Boundaries and Guarding your Heart.

Luke 6:45

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

She shared our heart is the center of our well being, it controls our thoughts, desires and passion. That my friends is already such a good reason why we need to guard our hearts, I feel.. I mean think about it, Luke 6:45 above tells us good things come from a good heart, and vice versa, if now in this world we let our hearts be corrupted with greed, lust, pride... Imagine what garbage will come out of our lives.

Matthew 7:21-22

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Here Christina was sharing to us about how we are fed with so many half truths in this world. Half truths being phrases telling us Jesus loves you no matter what you do, He doesn't look at your past, do not worry.. Seem true to you? Yes it is true, BUT!! The bible also tells us, when we receive God's gift of love and salvation, we no longer live as our old selves.. We are a new creation~

Psalm 119:9-11

⁹ How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
   By living according to your word. 

¹⁰ I seek you with all my heart;

    do not let me stray from your commands. 

¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart

     that I might not sin against you.

Above lies the answer to what is the best way to guard our hearts.. We hide God's Word close to our hearts.. Spend time with him daily and learn from our meditations with Him. What about the times where we fail to guard our hearts? Yes friends, we are not perfect and all knowing.. There will be times when the evil one will get a strike on us. In those times, do NOT dwell in your hurts and bitterness. Give them to God and turn to Him, for He will heal your heart and give you a new one in return with a new well spring for life~ :) It says so here in Ezekiel 11:19

¹⁹ I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

In conclusion my dear friends, guard your heart, for it is the source of life. With the word of God as the protective boundary.. And when we fall. Go back to God and allow Him to create a new heart for us!

Blog Revamp!

There here begins the revamp of this MYF blog which was once... Umm... Slow? Never mind that, ANYWAYS... Now it is gonna be updated regularly every Saturday night :D Ain't that great?! Haha! There will be pictures, (if there are any) this is why you do not hide from your friendly neighborhood photographer Joel So, or Sarah Chen, or Uncle Gary, or ... Okay whoever holding the camera! Alright, so what have MYF been up to lately, we just begun our series on Holiness, having Rev. Ting to speak on Repentance last Saturday.

Ingredients of Repentance

1. was the feeling of Remorse

The deep grieve in you that pulls you down with regret, wishing you never done what you just did...

(Luke 15:17-18)

2. The Turn

Here is the point where you make that U-turn away from your sins. It is not just turning away, but it is turning away and looking to God.

(Luke 19:8, Mark 10:21)

3. Change of Motivation

No point just turning away and changing the attitude in you, this ingredient pushes us to change our motivation in life... Our motivations could be to earn more money? Have a higher rank? Have more fun in the wrong ways? This is where it all STOPS and we have our motivation to be to please God.

(Matthew 3:4, Mark 10:21)

4. Trust God completely.Trust His Grace.

Trust Him that when He said it is finished on the cross, He meant it. Trust that His grace is sufficient for you. Rev. Ting went on to tell us that repentance is a gift from God. (Acts 5:31, 13:4, 19:4)

And she emphasized that repentance ALWAYS comes with forgiveness for our sins. (Acts 2:38, 3:19, 11:18) Repentance, my fellow MYF-ers, heals your well being. Your sins may seem more important to you. This is very real.. Yes, your sins may have the better for you... But when you do come to your senses and return back to Dad, your Father. He will run to you and throw a feast for you.

Just like the prodigal son who returned hurt and empty...

This is a painting by a famous artist in history named Rembrandt, this was his painting on The Prodigal Son Returns. Take a moment and observe this painting how the father embraces his son with love even though he returns so filthy. His father knew the point was NOT what his son had done, but the point was the repentance in his son's heart. (Luke 15:11-32)

A wise man once told me, you may run a 100 steps away from God, BUT the moment you take that 1 step back... God your Father, will run the 99 steps to you and hug you so tightly telling you He loves you, and He has been waiting for you to come back...