Epic soundtrack to accompany my study ~~~

(Thanks, Elynn, for the awesome photo!)

Dinner with the guild members yesterday!!
We tried Roost at The Centrepoint!
Delicious chicken rice! Spacious place! Much laughter too!

Talked about Christology lesson, shared our knowledge about health and vegetables and discussed last weekend’s sermon too~~~

See ya in the next Connexion outing!!

After studying the Altar of Burnt Offering, let us continue to study on the offering itself.
There are 5 types of offering in the Old Testament, namely
-Burnt offering
-Grain offering
-Peace offering
-Sin offering
-Trespass offering
Leviticus 1-5 gives the details of each of this offering.
There are at least 2 points we can learn from this passage

1.For some offerings, God gave ‘flexibility’ on the type of offering depending on the financial ability of the Israelites.

The rich Israelites sacrificed bulls.
The average sacrificed sheep or goats
The poor sacrificed pigeons or turtledoves.
As New Testament saints, we no longer bring animal sacrifice as Lord Jesus has sacrificed Himself.
Nevertheless, the same principle applies to us:
When we offer our finance to God, it is according to our individual financial ability (1 Cor 16:2)

2.The Israelites offered the best to God

When they offered animal sacrifice, the animals must be without blemish
Such an animal would have potential source of meat or leather or wool.
They could have sold the animal for a sum of money.
Nevertheless, they gave it to God.

When they offered grain to God, it was of the fine flour.
It was the best grade of flour which would later be deemed fit as a part of king’s diet (1 Kings 4:22)
It was a form of respect: if the flour was not presentable to a king, it was not presentable to God either.

Later on, in the book of Malachi (Mal 1:7-8), God rebuked the people for giving the defective offering (the lame, the blind, the sick animal) to Him.
God even challenged them to present such offering to a governor.
If the governor would not be pleased with it, why would God be?
For the Israelites who were not financially able, God accepted their pigeon or turtledove sacrifice.
Nevertheless, it does not mean they could offer sickly pigeon.
At the very least, they still would sacrifice a healthy pigeon.

 

Based on these two points, let us re-evaluate our giving to God.
All of us have different financial position.
Nevertheless, when we consider our giving to God (tithe, offering, building fund, etc), does it really reflect the best within our financial mean? 

Giving the best to God is indeed costly
Nevertheless, if God has already given His best (Lord Jesus) to us, why can’t we give our best back to Him? 
Let us not lose to the ancient Israelites.
If they could give their best to God within their financial mean, we can do the same too.

 

Hab 2:2-3
God has apppointed time for the vision.
It will speak, it will not lie.

What is vision?
A dream, a desire, a destiny.
We must not give up on our dream.

We are pregnant with destiny.
It is about to come true.
God has great things for us.

Pro 29:18
What is our dream?
Promotion? Owning a business?
Health? Family salvation?

Joseph was a great dreamer.
But, his own family betrayed him.
Nevertheless, he did not give up.
He went from pit to Potiphar’s house, to prison, to palace then prime minister.

Perhaps we feel our life is messed up.
Nevertheless, God can qualify the unqualified and the disqualified.

God is sovereign but He gave men free will.
When men (imcluding us) mess up God”s plan A, God will give plan B which is as good or even better than plan A.

1.Winners don’t quit and quitters do not win.

God does not measure success by number
He measures by faithfulness.

2.Take it one day at a time.

God does not show all our future at once.
If He were to do it, we may fear or we may run ahead of God.

When we have vision, we should write it out.
At the same time, we should help others achieve their vision.

3.Your attitude will determine your altitude.

We need to have attitude of passion.
We must be excited about our dream.
God does not use our past to determine our future.

God is the Source.
We achieve our dream  by our own strength.

How do we know our dream is from God?
If it is too big for our own strength, then likely it is from God.
2 reasons:
-God wants us to depend on Him constantly
-God wants all glory. When people see us, they will say, “Only God can do that.”

Zechariah 4:10
We must not despise the small beginning.
We must talk about the greatness of God when we talk about our dream.

4.Be prepared to take risks only when you have a clear word from God.

5.Stand on the word of God.

Numbers 23:19
Ps 37:4-5
Ps 71:1
Ps 91:15
Is 55:11
Jer.1:12
Jer 29:11
Jer 33:3
Phil 1:6
John 15:7
Rm 4:21
Phil 4:19
1 Pet 5:7

Keep on marching forward in God.
The dream will come to pass.

 

The atmosphere was sooo electric!! Look at all the hype on the audience’s face.

Did anyone notice that magnificent parry and combo??

Look at that decisive jab in the end!!

And the flip technique was difficult to counter indeed.

Another awesome way to improve my Japanese…
Singing and reading aloud Dragon Ball Super opening songs!!
Enjoy!!