Okay, since everyone has moved on to Philippians, maybe I should blog about it too, and keep James for my private reading time :) By the way, hope u guys got my first HK email...
Philippians ONE
3 things stood out for me:
Php 1:9-11 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God. This may be Paul's prayer, but when I read it, I was like, yes! I want this to be my prayer too, for myself. As eve shared, this world is indeed a little crazy at times, perhaps now, with even more external uncertainties, as educated individuals with some degree of common sense, its not hard to make good choices, yet the bible says "discern what is best" not just what is "good", I think that requires extra wisdom and walking close to God.
Php 1:21-24 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
On a more personal note, there are times where I feel reflective on life, on the fact of having the privilege to wake up each morning healthy. Some of us, I am sure have either faced the prospect of death personally or experienced death/ illness of a loved one. For me, the closeness to the tangible idea of departing from this earth came from our brother's Zi's coming and going from us. Which leads me to think, me waking up everyday, am I aiming for 'fruitful labor' in my life? or content with day in day out stuff. I am sure all of us have dreamt of something great we really wanted to do with our lives, to accomplish something, to leave a legacy, but are our dreams/ambitions in line with the purpose God has for us?
Php 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel
Truly. I think living out the gospel requires way more strength of character and discipline than just preaching or sharing it. That is one of my goals here in HK. I am yet to find many committed Christians here so its hard to expect things like back home, to hv the fellowship of believers like u guys. Yet I think for me, its a time of training to really ask myself, do I have faith coz other ppl have it and they can pray, say amen and ask me to prayer meetings? Or is my faith based on something deeper, that I will be willing to commit my own QT (hard in a shared room!), to pray and go myself to a local church, and to hopefully carry semblance of Christ in as I go about my daily life in being in the lives of others who are here in this short time? I think by nw quite a lot of my floormates noe im Christian so please pray for me that I will persevere in growing in God and conduct myself in a manner worthy of the Gospel!
M
penned at 1:45 PM
Judah 8 Chicks
Share your life/thoughts/inspirations with each other here.
Jesus is our firm foundation!
ROCK ON girls!
