Like a Rose

rucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
This is one of my favourite Christian songs. Tonight, I went to a small bible study group which Audrey and her co-workers had begun recently. There I met two other guys who were very knowledgeable in their faiths and I felt very encouraged. I don’t know, maybe it’s because back home, at my church, I didn’t really feel the same way. I’m not one to judge the spiritual health of anyone, but I’ve met my fair share of people who claim to be Christians and act like Christians but really weren’t. I’ve seen many talk the talk but not walk the walk. Which is why, I had many non-Christian friends, because I felt that sometimes, non-believers were better people (as much as it pains me to say). I mean, if you truly were a believer of Christ…wouldn’t you want to strive to be a better person? Yet, so many are so selfish, cold, unfriendly and critical. However, when I went to church here, I met so many wonderful people. They were cool, they enjoyed life, yet they were good people. They trusted in the Lord and they would go wherever the Lord took them.

Sometimes, I really think it was the whole Chinese church thing. Sometimes, it could be a traditional Chinese way of thinking, rather than a Biblical way… but of course, I pray often for my church back home. It’s interesting because every week I go to church, and I’m thinking of how great it is, and how we could run our church the same way and I think, maybe that’s what we could do to expand our church!

One thing I’ve noticed about the church I’ve been going to here is that their message is very focused on Jesus and how he saved us all. About Love. About Forgiveness. And about showing to the world who Jesus Christ is. And it’s not so much about rules or what you should not do or things that make you a bad Christian.

Maybe that’s what our church needed…a different focus. A focus on witnessing.

Speaking of witnessing….I actually went through the Gospel message with a friend for the first time. I’ve been teaching Sunday School for years but I never realized the extent of my knowledge and I was very very happy! I took a co-worker to church for the first time in his life and we talked about faith and Christ and I helped answer his questions and I was very excited that he was interested! So I want to say that my first real witnessing was a success!! I want people to know that I have Christ in my life and this makes me very happy and I want people to see that in me. I would always invite people to come to church with me, but I would never enforce it upon another person. I definitely do not want to be like those door knockers who won’t leave!!

At the bible study, we discussed a very interesting notion…the passage goes:

The Lord does not set us here first of all to preach, or to do any work for Him. The first thing for which He sets us here is to create hunger in others. No true work will ever begin without a sense of need being created. We cannot inject that into others; we cannot drive people to be hungry. That hunger is to be created, and that hunger can be created only through those who carry the impressions of God.

I very much agree! Very often, believers are pressured to grow before there is the forementioned need, before there is true spiritual hunger. And, sad to say, when there is real hunger, very little spiritual food is offered. Sometimes, I think that the truth is forced upon others to be saved before he is even aware that he is lost! If the lost never reaches out with personal faith, he will never come to meet the Lord our saviour.

And of course, it isn’t to say that being a faithful believer would make your life perfect. No, because without a bitter experience of our own inadequacy and sinfulness, we would be very unfit to witness to others. It takes a man who has discovered something of the measures of his own weakness to be patient with others. The Lord Jesus does not give the command, “Be a shepherd to My lambs…to My sheep” on hearing Peter’s self-confident affirmation of undying loyalty, but He gives it after he has utterly failed to keep his vows and has wept bitterly. After Peter publicly announces his loyalty, he denies Jesus three times before the rooster crows and then he weeps and confesses his love to Jesus (Jesus asks three times..always something that I found interesting), and then, that what when Jesus gave him the command…….Therefore, one who has firsthand knowledge of the loving care of the Lord will not easily despair of others, but look beyond sinfulness, willfulness and stupidity to the might of unchanging love.

A quote from the bible study that I absolutely loved:

"Here is a very difficult road, but the passionate desire for the goal will hold him steadfast in the way. Along that road the Man Jesus Christ has already gone before, and at every point has overcome for us. We have not climbed up; we are to be brought through in the train of His triumph."