Love

Hi guys! :)

To start the week off, I'd just like to share with all of you a passage that really spoke to me during my quiet time today :)

Ephesians 3: 17-19

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all of God's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled with the measure of all fullness of God"

I was sitting on the swing in my garden reading my bible in the evening and when I read this verse and the paradoxical phrase of knowing God's love which surpasses all knowledge, there was a sudden rush of air around me and the cool breeze swept across my face in a gentle, reassuring way which reminded me wonderfully of the miracle of God's love :)

We are so vastly, immensely, irrefutably loved by God our Father :) His love for us knows no limits, no boundaries and cannot be tainted by anything in this world- be it sin, doubt, bondage, pain or fear. So many times we hear how amazing God's love is for us, it enters our brains, we process and understand the informatoin and go "Ok that's great! I know that now!"

But the concept that Paul presents to us here in Ephesians is something more abstract, profound. The concept that Paul presents to us is that this love the Father has for us, can only be fully understood by us by the experential aspect of our spiritual lives. We cannot completely understand this love by dissection or analysis of bible verses, nor can we claim to know this love fully just because we possess knowledge of the details of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for us. We can only truly know what the love of God encapsulates, when we experience this love for ourselves, in a tangible way that goes beyond the understanding, logic and rationale of our human minds, and dives right into our hearts, to touch us in a way that we cannot explain or condense coherently into words. The love of God is transcendental, and it is impossible to be captured in a sentence or even distilled into an EE essay. It exceeds our comprehension, our reasoning, our thoughts, our understanding and the only way to fully embrace this love is to open our hearts to God and ask with earnestness that He bless us by sprinkling dew drops of this great love on us more and more each day, that we may experience it to understand it more and more and more and MORE! :)

Let's make it the earnest prayer of our heart, to cry out to the Father everyday that He may give us a little experience of His love, be it through people or situaitons around us, that we may begin to know this love that surpasses all knowledge. And when we finally begin to know this love more, in ways than surpass knowledge, that is when our lives truly begin to be saturated with fullness; purpose.

This wonderful, heart-warming verse will rest in my heart for the rest of the week, and hopefully for the rest of my life. I hope that it will in yours too :)


In His love,
Soph :)

Good Friday & Easter(:

Hi everyone!

Hope you're having a meaningful Good Friday and Easter(:

I'm not sure how you feel about Good Friday and Easter. In the recent years, I've felt some sort of indifference towards these days. Like not feeling so thankful for what He did on the cross for us. I knew I was taking His sacrifice for granted, but I didn't know what to do about it. Maybe some of you have felt this way too.

But yesterday, my brother brought up this interesting point. Remember Barrabas?

Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”

- Matthew 27:15-17

And the people asked for Barabbas. Barabbas was involved in a rebellion against the Romans, and he was a murderer too. Instead of being punished for his crimes, Barabbas was set free. Instead of Barabbas, Jesus was punished. And ironically, Jesus was crucified for what Barabbas was guilty of (being involved in a rebellion against the Romans).

So in many ways, we're like Barabbas. We didn't lead a rebellion, we didn't murder, but we're still sinners. And instead of bearing the punishment of our sins, Christ took our place. He took our place!

So let's not forget that we are set free because of His love that He showed on the cross. Let's remember that we don't deserve this grace. We've been set free from darkness, and let's live a life worthy for Him in gratitude(:

See you on tuesday!

- ding

Woot! Blogpost! again.

Hello people!

Once again, the amazing blog of the fireac of the of the. Okay i lost my train of thought. Oh wells.

But hey people who read this blog, and are actually taking time to read it! heh. Okayzzz. Me turn to share this week.

Its been a crazy week for me, as a year 6, and in the middle of the week i decided, well, since im down and rostered to write i might as well write now.

EASTER IS COMING! ARE YOU EXCITED!!! :DDDDDD. Cause I am.

Funny how we all seem to trivalise these events. Like me. Oh easter, another holiday, another presbyterian convention, etc. etc. For crying out loud, Hop is in cinemas! The easter bunny on a big screen! Delivering eggs. (Don't get me wrong, the movie was quite cute).

HELLO! JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE PEOPLE! THATS WHAT EASTER IS ABOUT!!!

Rose from the grave! Rose from the grave! Not from his bed leh, From the Grave! Why arent we on our knees giving thanks! Easter is the ultimate proof of God's power, and his sovereignty in our lives.

Ephesians 2: 1-10

Made Alive in Christ

¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Don't you see! Don't you realise! God has a MASTERPLAN! Because of Easter, we are alive in christ! Because, we were all dead once, in our sin, in our sinful nature, but now we live! Forever!!!!!!

Grace. Faith. Love. Such amazing words. But they simply represent what God has done for us, in our lives!

Grace - an unmerited favour

Faith - Belief in what we cannot see

Love - God.

Love, in his Grace, came down for us, and died to remove our sins, so that by faith all who believe shall not perish but have eternal life. AMEN.

And so how. Because of Easter, because we are safe, what do we do????? Sit back and relax?

NO! MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS NO! CANNOT!

Look at verse 10! We are created to do good works! (c.f. James: Faith without deeds is useless) Because of easter, we are saved, and hence, are called to do good works in our LORD Jesus Christ. To go out, to spread his love, and to preach to the masses.

Well, FireAC, how can we do this? Very easy.

REW is coming. We can encourage others, and we can pray for them.

Therefore, if you are convicted, i invite you to pray. Pray for the speaker, pray for the people serving in the REW itself and the followup. And more importantly, PRAY FOR A NON-CHRISTIAN FRIEND TO BE IMPACTED. We never know how God will move. But, we can always pray.

SO IN SUMMARY:

JESUS LOVES YOU. ME. AND EVERYONE. EVEN THE VILEST SINNER. SO LETS PRAY FOR THEM.

kthxbai.

God Bless

-

Jon Wong!