Hallelujah!
Just went to City Harvest today and listened to Dr. A. R. Bernard. And wow, his message was really powerful. He shared the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 and I never knew that so much could be read from this short parable. The sermon really touched my heart today but more importantly, it was an answer to a question that I had asked God.
Recently, I’ve been rather disillusioned regarding service to the community. For some reason, I’d begun thinking a lot about what I’m really doing community service projects for. Was it for the record? The CIP hours? But I’ve had more than enough of that quite frankly. So why on earth am I still embarking on this new project? Especially at this time when we’re supposed to have stopped all our CIP commitments to concentrate on our studies. I just couldn’t help but feel that I should never have agreed to organise the event in the first place. Then I would start feeling guilty that by taking up this task, I had deprived the beneficiary from other volunteers who might have more time to commit. I knew deep in my heart, that God wants us to serve others.So why did I still feel so reluctant now that I could really impact the less fortunate? So one night when I was praying, I asked God to reveal a verse in the Bible that would remind me of this. Closed my eyes and flipped to Jeremiah. Nothing about serving there. Disappointed and weary, I went to sleep. But praise God, I may have forgotten about it the next morning but my God never forgets.
The topic of Dr. Bernard’s sermon: Compassion. How does the church manifest the love of God to a dying world who doesn’t know God? Learn from Jesus’ example: Jesus didn’t just preach in a cave on the mountain tops like some hermit guru. He showed the people God’s love in a form that they could easily see and understand. ”Love thy neighbour as yourself.” The answer to all my questions was God’s second greatest commandment! How could I forget? An amazingly simple answer to all my questions! I’ve known this from the start of my Christian life, but I just couldn’t see that that was the answer!
We serve not out of obligation, religious duty, or for personal glorification like others do, but to show the world what this “love of God” really means! If we really love God, we can’t help but help. I promise God, I’m giving my best this time. Not going to get distracted by what others think, or my discouraging thoughts. And hopefully, if the people I work with can sense that I’m functioning with the love of God, they would see this service as more than just an obligation to fulfil. And that would be the best testimony for Christ.
I think the moment when Dr. Bernard really blew the roof off was when he finished his sermon by saying ”Jesus saw all of these people, from the religious expert, the bandits, the wounded man, the priest, the Levite, the inn keeper and the Samaritan, and deemed them all worth dying for.” (refer to Luke 10)
Such is the love of God that we’ll never fully comprehend.
By the way, praise God for his healing. People are beginning to notice an improvement. (:
