Wednesday, March 8, 2017
I've been working on the Archives section in the church's website once again. This time round, it's sieving out the old Lord's Day sermons, and compiling them together into a complete section in the Archives. I'm about done updating each entry, counting 87 in total from the start of 2014 to about the first quarter of 2016, but missing out just on 2 sermons which were not uploaded.
Tagging each post on the website to group them up was a simple, albeit tedious task. It was simply going back to the oldest posts in 2013 and updating each one of them. Checking to see if the entire book of Matthew was covered was another (the sermons were all on the Gospel of Matthew - Life of Christ). It was a walk down memory lane for me. I was flipping through my notebook which I use to copy each week on pointers on each sermons, although I never really went back to read them. Flipping the pages backwards was an exercise in travelling through time in reverse. It went all the way back to the start of 2015, when we created the first Church Year Planner, and before that, where I used to use a scrap of paper in the church bulletin to copy down the notes.
The changes as I flipped each week into the past were gradual, but significant. I could identify periods where I was fervent for God, other periods not so much. I saw how the church bulletin changed. I saw how we used to put in the hymns in the bulletins because we didn't have the hymn books to use. I saw how we used not to have a church logo. Most poignantly, I saw, in the prayer lists and the church duty rosters, how so many prayers were answered, how so many people need God each week, how God has carried each person through these 3 years. I also saw how there are some who have since left the church, some who have been called home to God, some who joined the church. I saw my name appear for the first time for church ushering duty, my baptism, how my preacher became a pastor.
To this date, it's been about 3 years and 2 months since I started attending the church, and attending one regularly. And boy, what a journey it has been! So many ups and downs, so many periods of discouragement and unhappiness, prayer items for a good job back in 2014, sitting through Matthew with blurry eyes trying to understand the love and grace of God through scribbled notes with lots of exclamation marks, mostly in surprise and comfort that the Lord is here for me. People come and go, things change, but God ever remains the same, faithful, unchanging and loving God.
A walk down memory lane, bringing to remembrance my First Love for God. Most strongly, I believe this is God's way of telling me not to forget His first love, like the church at Ephesus did (Rev. 2:4). Indeed I have changed and grown to understand and love God more, but this is just the start of knowing my infinite God, and knowing more requires me to keep this first love alive, when I was blurry eyed with wonder on the things of God.
And now, before I meditate and pray further on this lesson, time to get back and find out where those 2 missing sermons went! || posted by Kuan Hui
Tagging each post on the website to group them up was a simple, albeit tedious task. It was simply going back to the oldest posts in 2013 and updating each one of them. Checking to see if the entire book of Matthew was covered was another (the sermons were all on the Gospel of Matthew - Life of Christ). It was a walk down memory lane for me. I was flipping through my notebook which I use to copy each week on pointers on each sermons, although I never really went back to read them. Flipping the pages backwards was an exercise in travelling through time in reverse. It went all the way back to the start of 2015, when we created the first Church Year Planner, and before that, where I used to use a scrap of paper in the church bulletin to copy down the notes.
The changes as I flipped each week into the past were gradual, but significant. I could identify periods where I was fervent for God, other periods not so much. I saw how the church bulletin changed. I saw how we used to put in the hymns in the bulletins because we didn't have the hymn books to use. I saw how we used not to have a church logo. Most poignantly, I saw, in the prayer lists and the church duty rosters, how so many prayers were answered, how so many people need God each week, how God has carried each person through these 3 years. I also saw how there are some who have since left the church, some who have been called home to God, some who joined the church. I saw my name appear for the first time for church ushering duty, my baptism, how my preacher became a pastor.
To this date, it's been about 3 years and 2 months since I started attending the church, and attending one regularly. And boy, what a journey it has been! So many ups and downs, so many periods of discouragement and unhappiness, prayer items for a good job back in 2014, sitting through Matthew with blurry eyes trying to understand the love and grace of God through scribbled notes with lots of exclamation marks, mostly in surprise and comfort that the Lord is here for me. People come and go, things change, but God ever remains the same, faithful, unchanging and loving God.
A walk down memory lane, bringing to remembrance my First Love for God. Most strongly, I believe this is God's way of telling me not to forget His first love, like the church at Ephesus did (Rev. 2:4). Indeed I have changed and grown to understand and love God more, but this is just the start of knowing my infinite God, and knowing more requires me to keep this first love alive, when I was blurry eyed with wonder on the things of God.
And now, before I meditate and pray further on this lesson, time to get back and find out where those 2 missing sermons went! || posted by Kuan Hui
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