ACTS part II.

JANUARY 23, the most DREADED day of January.
WHY? Because it's a SATURDAY and there's SCHOOL.

Anyway, youth service went on as usual even though there was wildfire party 2 going on at EPCC.


Okay, firstly, BIBLE CLASS =D

Led by the Bible Class Boss herself:

EUNICE LEE

And that day we learnt about:

THANKSGIVING (see the paper, not the models)

So we did some:

ACTING

..according to the scripts given, and also with:

DRAMA

With everyone's partipation, even the:

OLD KUTU

So it's like this.. everyone would:

READ

..their scripts first before:

DRAMATISING

..it out.

So if you notice, that was two groups, and here's our last group below:

READING

..their script before making Ben a:

TEACHER

And, in the same act, we saw Daniel and Shaun:

BONDING

..and their act made everyone:

ROLL ON the FLOOR LAUGHING

No, it didn't terpesong from Bible class..

All the acts had to do with one thing, THANKSGIVING, as further explained by:

YEAN AI

Thanksgiving, as David did in:

PSALM 118

So yes, then dinner, then prayer.

But before that..

BEACH PARTY

..flyers being promoted by Eulene after being distributed by the two [insert adjective here] guys, Indy and Ben.

So, yeah, where were we..

PRAYER

..with the usual strong turnout of fireBRANDS (oh btw, there's Youth Prayer every Saturday morning, 8-9a.m.).

So anyhow, prayer points included the families and friends of the dragon boat accident victims, service that night, family and friends of one of Sharon's schoolmates who had taken her own life that week.

And again, that night prayer was done in:

GROUPS

..of 3-5 people.

Once everyone finished praying,

SHIAU XIAN

..fireBRANDS' new other prayer coordinator (besides Sarah) closed in prayer.

So next:

TOILET BREAK

Followed by:

PRAISE & WORSHIP

But, foremostly, something special that night:

LESTER WAN

..sharing his true and amazinggg testimony of how God healed him of a cyst in his toe.

While being rolled into the operation room, the doctor gave him a final check..

..and the cyst which was supposed to be there..

..was NOT there anymore!

No need for an operation anymore.

Really miraculous stuff eh (= prayer doess work wonders..


So yes, back to:

PRAISE & WORSHIP

..which was..

..how to say.

Giving reverence back to God.

Then, we had announcements.

With Ming Yen, yang dengan penuh gayanya:

MEMPROMOSIKAN

..go read at the bottom of post.

Also, the:

CAPTAINball CAPTAIN

..who talked about the prep for Captain Ball for Wave Challenge (in April as usual). Trainings are every Sunday at Youth Park, 4:30-6:00+ p.m..

So then, the next person to grab the pulpit boom stand was:

PASTOR VICTOR.

But then a forgetful Joyce bumped in and:

INTERRUPTED

..to announce about..

..oh crap i forgot.

So, back to the topic, Pastor continued his previous message about:

THAT

ACTS - Part 2, A continuation of Acts Part 1 obviously, from 2 weeks ago.

Click here to view.
Anyway, let's move on to step 4.

4) We must MAGNIFY God

Acts 4:23-24
Except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

Put God first in everything.
Don't take problems/ matters in our own hands but go to God and pray.
If we look at our problems all the time, it becomes very big.
We must not focus on our problems but we must look to God and put Him first in our lives.

Nothing moves us when God is sovereign in our lives.
Everything moves us when we are sovereign.

If we lean on God, He will lead us through and we will be able to experience the power of God.




5) We must maximize PRAYER

The word PRAYER appeared 48 times in acts.
God is waiting for His children to pray.
Spiritual warfare requires the use of spiritual weapons. Spiritual weapons come by prayer.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

-Mother Teresa

6) we must model christ-like GENEROSITY.

Acts 4:32-34.
All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them

Whatever we do reflects Jesus. We need to be generous.

We Must share our best (resources, time) with people.
And when we begin to do these they will see JESUS in us.
When we give people, give the best. If it doesn't hurt. It's not giving.



7) we must mobilize everyone for MINISTRY and MISSIONS.

Acts 6:1-7. But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.

Men were chosen to serve. God wants everyone to be in ministry and missions.

NOTE-WRITING

*we were broken up into 6 groups to discuss*

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

[insert photo-that-wasn't-taken here]
SIX

And the peronda:

SUPERVISOR

Q: What kind of people should be chosen for ministry? And what are the characteristics?

Kind of people:
-Everyone

Characteristics:
- commitment
- Christ-like
- dedication
- be sure of what you want
- good hearted
- love God
- transparent to God
- able discern right and wrong
- humility
- discipline
- strong faith in God
- cooperative
- be open to connections
- leadership qualities
- charisma
- have a servant heart
- full of faith & the holy spirit
- teachable
- submissive
- patient
- obedient
- hardworking
- passionate
- have initiative
- knowledgeable
- experienced
- dedicated
- skillful
- confident
- called by God

Some CHIM & powerfull stuff:

People cannot choose people to serve, but people have to choose to serve.

There are Many people who are capable who are not called by God but those who are called by God are capable.

Oh, right, each group sent out one represetative to present their answers:

NICHOLAS


EULENE


SHAUN


SARAH


HADIRIN-HADIRAT


ELISHA


MING YEN

Q: How can we mobilize everyone for ministry?
Ways to mobilize everyone:
- approach them
- motivate them
- be an example ~ influence them
- those that are in ministry must go out to bring people into ministry
- help them find a ministry
- involve people
- warm fellowship
- prayer
- appreciate people
- expose them to reality
- show everyone the same objective/plan/vision/picture
- group people with the same skills and find a way to impact that area
- through the Mass media
- through schools

Definition of Ministry : To minister to someone in need. When you see the need, you gotta fill up the need.

So, lastly, Pastor wrapped everything up in a fitting:

CONCLUSION

ATTENTION to JYB members; NO JYB next saturday (30/1) AGAIN. sigh.
On the up side, there's a talk at EPCC, for 17 and above only.
ANNNDDD, there's BEACH PARTY afterwards.

160110

worship pratice and the rare l.c.d. man at work.

Bible class that week was led by Indy Benjamin Toh.

The 'BIG' 'MAN' himself

All the attentive students.

fellowship before prayer

Sarah Khoo - prayer coordinator

Prayer

Bagai lalang ditiup angin.

After a long absence...............................ICE BREAKER

All the secrets of the fireBrands in one place.WOAH

Thats what you get when you.........eat sour plus?

LOOK LOOK, talking monkey xD

After ice breaker was worship.

Eulene on announcements.She earned this weeks picture on the blog.

And now for the speaker......

He's fast, he's tall, he's 'quite handsome' xP and does the best 'irresistible influence' ever. JASON CHAN!! Our awesome speaker that night.

His message that night was powerful and sharp.

He started off with this saying " the fact that we come to church does not make us christians"

What makes a christian a christian?

a) Relationship with God.
b) Faith
c) Believing in Jesus.

Things required of a christian :

1. Mark 12 : 30
- you have to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind
and with all your strenght.

Ask yourself. Do you love God enough that you are willing to do crazy things for him?. like you would for someone you have a crush on for example.

2. Luke 9 : 23
- If we want to follow God, we must take up our cross daily and follow him.
- We sometimes may have to give up our own personal dreams to serve him to the fullest.
( denying yourself)

3. Matthew 28 : 19
- We need to bring the gospel out to the world
- Evangelism is a lifestyle, something you do everyday.
- It is doing the will of the Father.
-All of us are special in our own way.We all have different talents, skills and abilities.
Therefore, we have to use the gifts given to us to advance the kingdom of God

Not sure what he's doing

090110

Hello, people of Earth, Penang, Malaysia and Mars.
SCHOOL has reopened for SOME and I bet all of us were looking forward to last Saturday.

Did you realise that 09+01=10?

Okay, back to business.


Bible class started at 6 as usual, and I was there just in time to find out that Le Roy was teaching it and they were talking about Pslam 51.
Go read it up, PLEASE.



After bible class, it was dinner time.

yes, late.

After dinner was the usual 7.15 prayer. I wonder why prayer isn't at 7 anymore. We surrounded Sharon and the piano and sang Here I Am To Worship, Light of The World.
Prayed for the churches in Malaysia and all.

Then, the usual FIVE MINUTE TOILET BREAK/ not-so fellowship.

After that was worship.


Okay, this is the part where you expect Ming Yen to go on stage, but no.


EULENE was on stage.
Yes, she's gonna be doing announcements as well.


And for once, there's no picture of ming yen on stage.
Obviously, coz she was seated, as pictured above.

Welcomed the new worship team members. from left KEN-JEEN, EULENE & ANDREW.

Okay after that, Alex went on stage. And once we see Alex, we see.... FLOORBALL.
*floorball people cheer*
*inserts picture of alex here*
He promoted the floorball yearbook. Go get it! it's like 10 bucks?

After Alex was Sarah, and once we see Sarah, we see... chocolates, birthdays, kutus, nothing.

December and JANUARY babies.

Next up, the one, the only Pastor Victor came on stage.
Last year in January, we talked about ACTS.
This year in January, we're still gonna talk about ACTS.
Last year was about going back to the roots of the church.
This year Pastor Victor talked/is still gonna talk about the original plan of the church.

*****************the computer hung*****************

*****************okay back*****************

Pastor was relating prototype to a prototyped bag, fyi.

BECOMING AN ACTS CHURCH.

The problem today : Christianity at our CONVENIENCE.
Which translates to : we come to church when we want too/ feel like. We give God our leftovers.

SO, How do we become an ACTS church. (not the acts church in kl, mind you)

WHAT WE NEED:

1) the Holy Spirit -

Acts 1:8
But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

We must rely on the Holy Spirit's power.
A church without the Holy Spirit is like a brain without knowledge.

Is the Spirit of God making choices for you or taking control of yours (your choices)
At this point, pastor gave a quote from James Hudson Taylor but I'm still trying to find them in their exact words.
I kinda missed a few words but here's what I got.

People who leave their choices to God always get the best from God....
-James Hudson Taylor

AH found it.

He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to him
-James Hudson Taylor

We need to come to God before we make our decisions and we need God to be the Lord of our lives.


2) Warm Fellowship -

Acts 2:42-44
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common.

We must maintain a warm fellowship.
If God wants to bring new people into this church, is this church warm enough?
Pastor Victor related it to a powerless incubator.

e.g - a powerless incubator will not be able to keep a baby warm. And if it can't keep a baby warm, it doesn't serve its purpose and an expecting couple trying to find a hospital will not go to a hospital with a powerless incubator.

Unity = warmth
Unity was mentioned 10 times in Acts.
God added to them daily because they were warm.
When we know each others' need, we would be able to help each other and we would be able to become warmer. We need to breed a new culture of caring to one another's needs.

3) Small Groups -

Acts 2:46-47
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

If we want this church to be warm, we have to be warm.

Why use small groups?

• they are infinitely EXPANDABLE
• they promote fellowship
• they are unlimited geographically.

So yeah, those are the 3 principals for us to become an ACTS church.
SOOOO, go to a cell group.

4 more to come next NEXT week.

Attn to jyb members: They're gonna play Kingdom Come - Hillsong United next week.

for those of you who can't get it on limewire or wherever.

OH, and there's beach day on the 30th of January from 4-8pm i think.
So do come.

The First

January the 2nd.

It was the first service of 2009.

The atmosphere that night was 'meriah'? exciting? thanks to a bunch of crazy youths with crazy new year resolutions.Which I hope has something to do with making Jesus famous.xD

Anyway,

As usual bible class was at 6,maybe a little late but hey, proud to be Malaysians.

After dinner, we all came back for prayer which was interesting. We all split ourselves into boys and girls and prayed for a few prayer points. Thats new.

After that, was time for Worship.

Worship team on duty was awesome as usual. It consisted of i think 8 people. Double electric and all. NICE.

OKAY, next was time for the announcements by the one and ONLY Ming Yen.

*There always seems to be a picture of announcements.

Seterusnya,

The message by the man of God, friend, leader and many more. PASTOR VICTOR

The man himself

He started with an example using a dart board and a few volunteers.*hard to explain it.

But it was about having a VISION or TARGET

What is vision?

-Vision is a clear mental picture of a better tomorrow given by God which moves a person to believe that it not only could be done but should be done.

THE INGREDIENTS OF A VISION

1. A clear picture.
2. A positive change.
3. A future focus.
4. A gift from God.
5. A Choosen people and time.

Okay now for all you people who don't know what the vision of this church is here you go.

IMPACTING LIVES.
-matthew 5 : 13-15 (salt and light)

TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES
-matthew 22 :37-40 (love your neighbour)

REACHING THE NATIONS
-matthew 28 : 18-20 (The Great Commision)

*please do not be lazy and read up the verses. Please

And with that i conclude that we should all be determined and persistent to fulfill the vision of God.

*If God gives you a vision for your life, don't be afraid to share it with pastor your parents or a close Godly friend.