By Calvin

As I was reading through “Driven By Eternity” written by John Bervere, something that he asked struck me deep in my heart. Have we really sought God earnestly? Have we really planted ourselves and Are we entangled by the worldly things?

As I was reading through the book during my own quiet time, I came upon Chapter 11, “God’s Custom House”. In this chapter, he was telling us about the house that the Lord our God wants to build his house using us. But are we ready to assist him in building his most MAGNIFICIENT and WONDERFUL house?

MY DEAREST BROTHERS AND SISTERS, GOD WANTS TO USE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. May it be that we are from different upbringings, different personalities or even different life experiences, God wants to use us. He wants to use us to MULTIPLY his kingdom, but than the CHOICE now falls on whether we CHOOSE to fulfill his desire or to fulfill our very own desire.

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. "(Psalms 127:1)

Indeed, it is only when we truly follow in the Holy Spirit than are our works fruitful. For if we were to do the works by our own strength, our works will be in vain. We may have done a lot of works that are deemed to be good, but are those works for our own selfish gains or are those works truly for God? Brothers and Sisters, if those works are only for very own desires, than we must really REPENT and ask God for FORGIVENESS and ask him to change our heart desires. But moreover to this, we have to spend time to really earnestly seek God in our prayer because GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS and it is only when we pray that God will listen. I always remember what Si’Er said: Works make up 10% and the rest of the 90% is nothing else but prayer.

One very good example will be our very own cell group, “MATCHSTIX”, we prayed and ask the Lord that more people will come to know him through us and did you know what. Just in the year 2006 alone, we GREW by 100%(excluding the recently added members of S.I.A). PRAISE THE LORD!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! Our God truly answers prayers.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, isn’t our Lord wonderful? Isn’t he marvelous? He has truly blessed “MATCHSTIX” and I truly believe that “MATCHSTIX” will continue to MULTIPLY even in the years to come. But always remember that the DEVIL will always try means and ways to try to prevent us from truly seeking God. May it be the Lust for money, Setbacks in life or even our Work, we must always remember that we a
re only staying in this world for a short period of time, we will be staying with our heavenly father for ETERNITY. So we should not be storing our rewards on this world but in Heaven.

SO HAVE WE REALLY SOUGHT GOD EARNESTLY?

When I read this question, I suddenly realized 1 thing, that is God has indeed blessed me with a lot of things. May it be in my Family, Studies, NS life, Taekwondo or even what I am doing. I suddenly realize that in my past 20 years of walk with Christ, I have taken him for granted. When I needed him, I will allow him to enter my life but when that need is over, I threw him out of my life. What a fool I have been! I only realized my greatest mistake only after experiencing the setbacks in my life. 1 good example would be after my ‘A’ Levels and my applications for all the 3 local Universities were rejected. But God AMAZINGLY made a way for me in my studies.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, God has a plan for each and everyone of us. His plans are that of PROSPERITY and not DESTRUCTION. We must always look at God in whatever we do. First and foremost, our hearts MUST be RIGHT before him and than slowly by slowly, his PLANS for our lives will come to light. We should not just because of a little setback turn our backs on God and forgotten what he has done in all of our lives. For the bible states that when we are faithful to him, he will be faithful to us. Seek God EARNERSLY and God will bless us in whatever we do. I believe that all of us have in some ways or other been blessed by our God Almighty. Won’t we be fools to give up all of his blessings just for a little setbacks in life?

One very good example would be JOB who despite losing everything in his life; his family, livestocks, servants and even his own house, he CHOSE to follow the way of God. Because of his FEAR and his CHOICE to follow the Lord, all that he had were BLESSED and doubly MULTIPLIED. SO FRIENDS, CHOOSE WISELY!!!

HAVE WE REALLY PLANTED OURSELVES?

According to John Bervere, he states that it takes a Healthy Body of believers to experience great MULTIPLICATION. Many of you will be thinking what does Healthy Body means. Well, it refers to a group of believers who are planted into a church which includes serving in the various ministries in the church, moreover to these, they are also reaching out to their friends and colleagues who are still non-believers.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, those people that are close to us and yet still do not know Christ need to be save. They need to be saved from the depths of HELL and be brought to HEAVEN. They can be save only if we share Christ with them. And in order for us to share Christ with them, we have to be well versed in the words of the Lord.

Here is a question that all of us may want to ponder. What would you do if a conflict occurred between you and the leadership in the church? It could be a due to the different views in the way the offerings are taken or the money spent, don’t like the way that the pastor preaches, lack of attention given by fellow congregation members and so on.
Would you:

CHOOSE to leave the church and find another church where there appears to have no
conflict?

OR

CHOOSE to forget about what happen and continue to stay in the church?

Here is the truth as stated by John Bervere: even if you may choose to leave the church to another church, you will never be able to find a church without conflict. Lets face it: Only Jesus is the perfect pastor or member of the church. Always remember that the church is the place that God places us in to learn about his words but that is also the place that the DEVIL wants to offend us and get us out of. So if we were to leave the church just because of a little conflict, than you have allowed the DEVIL to be successful in his attempt to lure you further and further away from God. This is because as time pass, and the conflict is in all the churches that you are in and you continue to run away, you will not be able to learn God’s words with a peaceful heart and your walk with him will greatly suffer. For it is God’s will that when we leave the church, we should be in great joy and not sorrow.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace: the mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees will clap their hands.(Isaiah 55:12)

Let us continue to draw closer to God and continue to mature in our walk with him. For we should be the mature trees that the Lord delights in and not those uprooted for their lack of fruit. We should not resist the very thing God allows us to live through in order to strengthen us in our calling.



ARE WE ENTANGLED BY THE WORLDLY THINGS?

Last but not least is the question that is stated just above. There are many things that are indeed holding us back. These are our worldly desires.

Many times or rather, we have placed other things in first priority and not God. Many times, we are unable to really put away those desires of ours. We can never serve 2 master but only 1 at 1 time. This can be found in the verse Luke 16:13

No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one or love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.(Luke 16:13)

Moreover to this, most of the time, we are unable to give up the riches that are right before our eyes because the riches seems so real to us. Thus that is why Jesus says that it is so difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This can be seen in the story of the Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-22).

As shared by Jin Hang on Saturday during cell group with regards that we should be God-centered and not self-centered. This is very true because when we become self-centered, we will definitely fall to the temptations of the world . But if we were to be God-centered, God will always pull us away from these temptations than to allow us to fall into it.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, let us continue to grow in our faith in the Lord and continue to seek him in what ever things that we do. Even though we may continue to face temptations from the DEVIL through the Worldly things, Let us never forget the sufferings that Jesus had to undergo in order to cleanse our sins.

LET US CONTINUE TO FIGHT THIS SPIRITUAL WARFARE AND MOST IMPORTANTLY WIN THIS WAR!! SO THAT WHEN WE GET TO MEET OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR IN HEAVEN, HE WOULD SAY,


“WELL DONE, YOU GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT.”


P.S I know that this message is a little too long but I hope that after reading this message, all of you will be able to find God speaking to all of you.

Thank You