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Chem was quite bad today, but never mind, got to work on the other subjects. even though i'm actually quite sad cos i worked real hard for Chem this time. oh wells.
went for church service yesterday at Heart of God Church, it was good.
which is why i feel the need to spread the word of God and to share some things learnt.
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In Matthew 4:18 - 19 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
In other words, Jesus is telling them to follow him, to believe in him and to believe in the Lord. Many people do not know, but He is still doing it today. He stills look at you in the eye and tells you to follow Him.
Many people followed, but not many asked this question. "Where to, Lord?"
It's like when someone asks you to follow him/her and you ask, "Where are we going?"
In Luke 15 Jesus told the people 3 Parables; The Parable of the Lost Sheep, The Parable of the Lost Coin and The Parable of the Lost Son. Here are the summarised versions of the Parables:
The Parable of the Lost Sheep Suppose a farmer has 100 sheeps, and one day he loses 1 of them. He goes all out into the open country and desert just to find that one sheep, despite having to leave the rest of the 99 behind. And when he finds the sheep, he calls together all his friends and neighbours to celebrate and rejoice the finding of his lost sheep.
The Parable of the Lost Coin Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and she loses one. She lights a lamp, sweeps the entire house and searches very carefully around the house just to search for that one coin, despite still having 9 coins. And when she finds the coin, she calls together all her friends and neighbours to rejoice the finding of that one lost coin.
The Parable of the Lost Son There was a man who had 2 sons. One day one of his sons asked for half of the father's property, and after the father divided the property this son left home to spend all his riches in wild living and all the nonsense stuffs. It was when a famine struck the country and when he finished spending everything that he finally woke up and came to his senses, and decided to go home. When his father saw him, he was overjoyed and had a feast just to celebrate the homecoming of his son. The older brother, who was the good one, refused to go to the party as he was angry and jealous. He had been the most obedient all the years but he hadn't receive the same treatment as what his younger brother who has spent all these years spending money on nonsensical things. But the father said, "... we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."
Believe it or not, all 3 stories emphasise on the same point and all 3 share a common moral. Be it finding the lost sheep, lost coin or lost son; it is all about finding the lost one back to where it belongs. And that is what Jesus is wants us to do. He wants us to follow Him, to do what He did, to find the lost sheep, lost coin or lost son/daughter.
I believe everyone knows the story of the Titanic. The Titanic was an incredible ship and a milestone in the history of man's engineering. She was so huge and strong that is was claimed to be "unsinkable", some even claimed that "even God could not sink the ship". Who then would ever imagine the ship colliding into a huge iceberg floating by and sinking into the Atlantic Ocean in just 3 and a half hours.
The Titanic had 16 lifeboats then, or maybe more, I'm not too sure, and each had a seating capacity of 70. When the tragedy struck, crew members went running around shouting for people to get onto the lifeboats, but many didn't bother. Even when the alarm sounded, many didn't cared since most of them were convinced that the ship was really unsinkable. Hence, the first lifeboat that went down only had 21 passengers when it could occupy up to 70 passengers.
The subsequent lifeboats were the same - the second one was filled up to 21 people and the third was only filled up to 12 people. It was only much later that people realise the ship is really sinking that they start to fill up the last few lifeboats with women and children.
When the ship finally sank totally into the water and with many people struggling in the near-freezing water, the lifeboats started to row away. They rowed through the sea of screaming and drowning people, but they didn't help. How could they possibly shut their ears and close their eyes to the sight of freezing and drowning people and the screams and cries? Even if they heard, they just rowed away. They could have just turned back and rescue more people; pull more people out of the water; do anything to save more people, even if it is just one person. Moreover, most of the lifeboats were half-full and there were room for more.
In the end, out of the 16 or more lifeboats, only two turned back to rescue more people from the waters, and both lifeboats were already reaching the maximum capacity.
Hence, this story reminds us of the 2 types of Christians living in this world. Those who will row away and prefer to stay in their comfort zones, and those who will row back and do whatever it takes to help more people.
In other words, those will live for THEMSELVES and those who live for OTHERS.
On board the Titanic was this Pastor named John Harper. He was onboard the ship with his daughter and was on his way to a church conference. When tragedy struck, he immediately sensed danger. He went back to his cabin, carried his daughter, placed her in the first lifeboat, kissed her and said, "Honey, I'll see you later." and he went away.
He could've went into the lifeboat with his daughter, but he didn't. Instead, he went back into the ship and started running around yelling, "Women! Children! Unsaved people! Get into the lifeboats NOW!" (fyi, in Christian terms, unsaved people refers to the non-Christians) and he knocked on every door and got as many people as he could out of their cabins and into the lifeboats. After the ship sank, he was also amongst those in the freezing waters. Most of the people screamed and one could hear many voices, but among those voices was one that shouted, "Do not worry, believe in God and you shall be saved!"
That voice came from Pastor John Harper. He repeated many times and shouted it to many people. In the freezing cold waters he preached and even converted many people, before dying himself.
There is another shipwreck incident that many may not know - the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland. The Empress of Ireland was also a fine ship, and on board the ship then were a thousand over passengers. This time though, the ship sank not because it collided with an iceberg, but because it collided with another tanker, the SS Storstad. The Storstad left undamaged, but the Empress of Ireland was damaged badly. The Titanic sank in 3.5 hours, but the Empress of Ireland sank in just fourteen minutes. That was all they've got to lower the lifeboats and escape.
When tragedy struck, most passengers started to freak out and panic, but there was this particular group of youths who had an unusual reaction: they were perfectly calm. This group of youths were lucky enough to grab a lifevest each, and when the ship finally sank and the people were in the waters, they managed to keep themselves afloat.
Most of the people in the cold waters were struggling, and many did not have a lifevest. At this moment, the group of youths who had lifevests on all had a similar reaction. All of them did the same thing.
They took off their lifevests and started throwing it to the other people who did not have lifevests. There was no leader to instruct them to do so, no one to tell them to. They just did it on their own will.
Amongst the survivors was one man who told his story of a girl who gave him her lifevest. This man, about 38 years old then, was struggling in the waters to keep afloat when he saw a girl of approximately 17 years old swimming frantically to him. When she was quite a close distance away from him, she took off her lifevest and immediately she threw it to the man almost twice her age. The man, after catching the lifevest, suddenly felt very guilty for he felt that the girl deserve to live more than he do as she still has a long way to go, and the man threw back the lifevest to the girl. The girl caught the lifevest suddenly turned furious and threw hard back the lifevest at the man. After that, she screamed at the man one sentence that this man (and myself) will never forget.
"Take the lifevest! For I will die better than you do!"
The approximately 120 youths were all from the Salvation Army and was on their way for a conference sort of thing. And all of them died.
Do you want to be the one who rows away, who will prefer to pray for you and yourself only, to stay in your own comfort zone and prefer to mind your own business or the one who rows back, who live for others and will pray for everyone they can? You decide.
All the stories is talking about one thing, one word that the Salvation Army uses for almost every conference and every event: OTHERS. It is all about living for others, all about going the extra mile, even if it takes to die for a friend. Jesus Christ got nailed to the cross and died for our sins, for sins that he has never committed because he will never sin. He died for us, he died just to save us. John Harper could have gotten into the 1st lifeboat with his daughter but he chose to save more people knowing that he will die. The 120 youths all have a long way to go, a bright future ahead and could've stayed alive longer in the water and wait to get rescued, but they chose to give up their lives to save others' instead.
Hence I prayed and I told God to do whatever He can to inscribe the word "Others" into me, and to use me to help others anytime, anywhere, and to have Him remind myself of the word "Others" even until I close my eyes for the last time. And I promised God I will do my best to save more people, to follow Jesus Christ's footsteps and to spread His words..
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
A big THANK YOU to Pastor Joakim Lundqvist from Sweden, who was the one who told all of the above stories and made me realise a new goal in my life, for helping realise where I was going by following Jesus Christ and for the wonderful service and best Sunday I've ever had.
This post is also a tribute to the 120 Heroes and to Pastor John Harper, who have been fine examples of living for others and sacrificed their lives to save the others.
Sorry to all non-Christian readers for this rather religious post, but I hope some parts are really worth reading xD
Because I do not want to be a Christian that rows away.
and a cup of Starbucks coffee...
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