NEA2

2009-07-30T16:26:00.000+08:00

2009-07-19T20:48:00.000+08:00

Get a Haircut

“These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.”-Matthew 15:8

There we were, sitting in the middle of a statewide meeting for ministry leaders when the pastor of a large church leaned over and said to me, “You know, Joe, your hair is too long for you to be able to sing in my choir!” Actually there were probably better reasons that I couldn’t sing in his church choir, but I just smiled and said, “Oh really?”

The guy, who in so many words had told me to “get a haircut,” was a household name in our denomination, was nationally sought after as a preacher, and was what every aspiring minister hoped he could become. So, given how strict he was, you can imagine how shocked I was to later hear that he abandoned his church and family to move in with a woman he had been counseling.

I want to be careful not to sound holier-than-thou, but there is an important lesson here. If we are not careful, we can conform to a bunch of rules that keep us looking good on the outside while ignoring the condition of our hearts. It’s like buying good-looking peaches only to find out that when you cut them open they are bad on the inside.

Jesus confronted this “we’re-OK-because-we-keep-our-rules” attitude when the Pharisees pointed out that the disciples were not washing their hands before they ate. It’s not like the Pharisees were worried about any kind of sanitary issue. No, they had their tunics in a twist because the disciples were breaking a tradition, that is, not following their rules. I’m sure you could have heard a pin drop when Jesus stopped them cold by saying to these keepers of man-made rules, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Matthew 15:7-8). What a gut-wrenching indictment!

So in light of Jesus’ strong words on this point, how do we know when our hearts are far from God? One of the ways we know is when we see our Christianity in terms of the externals. Authentic Christianity is not about the right haircut, being at church every time the doors are opened, serving as an elder or using all of the “Christianese” lingo known to man. You can be all cleaned up on the outside while pride, jealousy, greed, and a dozen other internal demons happily feast on your heart. Let’s remember that “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Jesus longs to have a real heart-to-heart connection with us that expresses our love to Him in heartfelt acts of devotion instead of just living a life of dutifully keeping all the rules. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

My pastor friend found that he ended up with nothing when his heart was far from God—no ministry, no family, no devoted relationship with God. Fortunately, he repented and ended up reconciling with his wife. He would be the first to tell you that a true love for Christ cannot be replaced by a squeaky clean record of conduct according to “the rules.” When we let the rules rule, our faith is reduced to something like grocery shopping—it’s just another thing on our list of things to do.

So the choice is yours. Your life can be all about the burdensome duties of your Christianity or about the blessings of a heart that is devoted to Jesus. And, by the way, if your heart belongs to Jesus, the rules will take care of themselves!

YOUR JOURNEY…

-Pray and ask God to give you His perspective on the man-made rules in your life.
-Does He want you to follow them as a sign of respect to people in authority, for the safety of others, for your own safety?
-Divide a sheet of paper into two columns. List five or six of God’s rules in one column and five or six man-made rules in the other column. How are God’s rules different from man-made rules?
-When you interact with people, are you more concerned with what’s on the outside or what’s inside? How does this compare with God’s perspective?

2009-07-18T21:51:00.002+08:00

hey im here to revive the blog! WOOHOO. ELINE ROCKS!!!!
actually im pretty lazy to post the pics.. perhaps some other days?

2009-07-18T10:40:00.001+08:00

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 (New International Version)

33Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

34Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

2009-07-01T15:14:00.005+08:00

for those who are unable to go for caregroup on thursday to watch 'Fireproof',
here it is! enjoy! :)
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part1:

part2:

part3:

part4:

part5:

part6:

part7:

part8:

part9:

part10:

part11:

part12:

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ENJOY! :)

2009-07-01T15:07:00.003+08:00

Quiet time with God

2009-06-22T23:40:00.004+08:00

i think this is a important topic to relate and to understand. notice how often we are being reinforced on the idea of how important our quite times are. to pray and seek God. but sometimes we are met with such deterring disappointment."some how i just can't feel God", "somehow i just can't get into his presence". i thought john ortbergs offers a crucial and insightful speech on identifying key elements of prayer and how it aptly fits into our lives.

no more fruitless quite times i hope ;)

btw i think Donavan's blog is really cool www.donavann.wordpress.com check it out !!!

2009-06-22T11:42:00.003+08:00

lets pray for this little girl to get well soon. :)

2009-06-20T23:13:00.001+08:00

we got a UNIT BLOG!
do go visit it and flood the tagboard. haha!

2009-06-20T00:46:00.002+08:00

the caregroup rules are out!
you peeps can check it out under profile
:)
make sure you follow the rules yea? :D

2009-06-19T22:18:00.000+08:00

hohohoho! heidi is here!! okay okay. whatever, just being stupid (: because i just got the authority to blog here! :D well i guess we had loads of fun just now at sports day! :D ......... (actually idk what to blog.) opps! :P
bye!

2009-06-18T22:05:00.003+08:00

A Short Video I Did For Eunice ! :D Not That Nice.. But Enjoy :D

enjoy!

2009-06-18T15:00:00.003+08:00

2009-06-18T14:22:00.007+08:00

NEA = National Environmental Agency.
= No Emily allowed. XP
(oops. :X just kidding!)

you peeps out there! yes, you!
BE JEALOUS THAT WE ARE NEA!!! why?
because we are Now Extremely Adorable!!!!!!

teehee. :X

one more picture from camp (with ZIXUAN!):

after 1st day games. :)

UNSTOPPABLE!

2009-06-16T23:00:00.006+08:00

im just here to post some photos we took.

unstoppable is good. Amen?
i believe all of us might learn sth new.
but let's not make this fire go off. allow this fire to continue burning in our life

here are some photos we took

"woah-ed" by gideon?

presenting our DL! as usual, his style

one extra head on top.. can see?

jocelyn, eline,tansi,yining

some small photo:

i pray that God will blessed this caregroup.

lets not just grow in quatity but in quality

lets us be a cg that everyone wants to be.

be an unstopppable community

NEA2 all the way!

2009-06-05T22:42:00.004+08:00

SHOW CASING OUR CL!!!!~

i'm so sorry.... XP

from rachel, vivian, huixuan and zixuan

2009-06-02T23:30:00.001+08:00

dun forget! cg on thus! :)

2009-05-31T17:54:00.004+08:00

zixuan and eline broke a record yesterday~ hahaha

we walk from one end of the mrt to the other in 2minutes!!!! lol

(PS: the new mrt at the circle line is 3 cabins LONG) -wahahaha~

2009-05-29T15:15:00.001+08:00

To all the sec 4Es:

JIAYOU FOR

O LEVEL CHINESE

ON MONDAY!!!

For the Glory of God~

God's chisel

2009-05-27T18:48:00.001+08:00

we ARE His original masterpiece!

2009-05-12T15:35:00.004+08:00

just for entertainment.

P.S gideon was trying to learn their dance. :D

2009-05-09T00:06:00.004+08:00

hey people,

UNSTOPPABLE CAMP IS COMING!!!!

are you ~~guys~~ girls excited? heh heh.

Lets not get anything stop us from going to this camp yea?

tomorrow is the LAST DAY for early bird registration!!

so..... u should know what to do. :D

heh heh. XD

P.S we're NEA2! haha

2009-04-26T18:34:00.004+08:00

By your side - by Tenth Avenue north

Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Why are you crying?
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love?
Why are you still searching?
As if I'm not enough?
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run?
To where will you run?

I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
Please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands at my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life

Here at my side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
Please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

And I, I love you
And I want you to know
That I, I'll love you
I'll never let you go

may this song touch you like how it touched my heart.

-zixuan

2009-04-26T16:27:00.004+08:00

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY
NICOLE FIONA LAURENS!!!

:D

:D

2009-04-21T20:20:00.003+08:00

in case you guys do not read our tagboard,

let's have a SUGGEST MY CG BLOG URL competition!
haha, let's offer our suggestions for our cg blog's url....
the person who suggest the best url will receive a FREE bible(from emily)! gogogo

so, write down your suggestions in our tagboard.
emily shall be the judge, since she suggested it. HAHAHA~

2009-04-21T20:17:00.002+08:00

HEY PEOPLE!!!
there's CAREGROUP tomorrow!!
its gonna be a sports caregroup~

venue: kebun baru cc
time: 4pm-6pm++

see you all there!!

2009-04-12T22:07:00.001+08:00

EASTER SERVICE!!!

congratulations :
amanda doreen crystal wanxin (from deyi) who received christ today!

LALA

2009-04-11T22:13:00.001+08:00

hello!
i spent my whole day in band so didnt go for family day!
happy birthday sheeeeeeeeeepy! :D
iloveyou!

ZIXUAN FORCE ME TO BLOG

:D

2009-04-11T21:58:00.004+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOCELYN!!
you're finally 16! haha

hey everybody, guess everyone enjoyed today's NE family outing (for those who went), although there was heavy rain, but still we enjoyed the bonding yea?
Thank God for all of you, those who went/tried to go. XD

see you all at Easter Service tomorrow!!! bring all your contacts along!!! :D
tata~

-zixuan

hello hello!!

2009-04-08T23:15:00.001+08:00

hey peepo!
this is our new caregroup blog.
so yea, contact me if u wan me to add u to be authors. XD

-zixuan