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Praise the Lord! The year 2001 is finally
here!
It has been exactly 4 years since we started Harvest
Christian Centre. Looking back, these years have been
tough and challenging for all of us. I have to admit
that for the first 3 years, I was only able to give
limited time and energy into the church ministry as
I was a tentmaker (I was working in the secular world
as well as in a full time ministry). I experienced great
difficulty in giving my full concentration to the ministry.
I would say that throughout those 3 years, we were only
trying to be a "church".
Last year was personally a challenging year for me
as I took a step of faith in giving up my computer business
to devote myself full time in the ministry. Right from
the start, I felt that the Lord wanted me to start equipping
the church for Harvest. That is what we have been doing
throughout the year 2000. The theme "Equipping
For The Harvest 2000" was to prepare God's people
for the Harvest time that God is about to bring to the
church. Throughout the 12 months of 2000, we have equipped
the church for Service, Ministry, Spiritual Warfare
and Harvesting. Although we did not see a high growth
rate, we did hit some new and exiting milestones in
our ministry. We saw God testing the attitude
of our people in the church. We have to change
our attitude or remain stagnant in our church. Our
attitude determines our altitude in Christ. We
can change the spiritual condition in our church by
changing our own individual attitudes.
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I
am really glad to see some positive changes in some of
our members towards spiritual things, especially having
a hunger and desire to grow closer to God. The church
must come back to the heart of worship again. It is all
about Jesus and not about us! To them, I say, "Keep
up your good works and encourage others along the way".
So, what is in store for us in the year 2001? The Lord
has revealed that this year will be a year of building
for Harvest Christian Centre. So, we have chosen the
theme, "Arise & Build"
taken from Nehemiah 2:20
for this year.
What we really want to see this year is the Great Commission
being accomplished by our people. Evangelism is only
the beginning of Jesus' commands, the ultimate being
to make disciples of the people (Mt.28:18-20).
Our desire and goal for the year is to see more God-loving,
people-serving, Bible-reading, Spirit-praying members
within our ranks. We believe that when Jesus touches
lives, we will be changed and be transformed into His
likeness day by day. That means we become joyful, polite,
well mannered, humble, forgiving and quick to meet the
needs of others around us (Phil.2:3-4).
Our attitude to life does determine our altitude in
Christ!
So, what must we do to build a strong church this year?
First of all, we must build up our spiritual lives
like never before. We must build up our soul and spirit
with the Word of God. We have been feeding our flesh
too much with the things of the world until we have
become carnal-minded. By right, we should be more comfortable
in the realm of the Spirit than in the realm of the
flesh (1Cor 2:12-16).
To become spiritually stronger, the church will be focusing
more on the Word of God and prayer this year. One of
the ways members can become spiritually stronger is
to attend Care Group Meetings (Cell Groups) in their
own areas. This year, our Care Groups will be using
Bible teaching materials from the Destiny Project, with
world-renowned teachers of high calibre imparting their
life messages through VCDs (Video Compact Discs).
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Secondly, we will be focusing on building stronger
and better relationships among ourselves as church members
and among our family members. Christianity is all about
loving God and people. Unfortunately, we cannot learn
to do all these from secular schools. Worse still, we
begin to pick up wrong habits and attitudes from trashy
media (TV programmes, movies and magazines) and ungodly
friendships. How are we going to build better relationships?
The answer: through God's Word, the Bible.
Thirdly, we must build up our members to excel in the
marketplaces of the secular world. God says "He
will make you the head and not the tail" (Deut
28:13) and ... the wealth of the wicked is stored
up for the righteous (Prov
13:22). However, those promises will never come
to past by sitting around doing nothing productive with
our lives. We must rise up and influence the secular
world with our godly values. For those who are still
studying, they should seek to excel to do their best
in their studies for the glory of God.
 Finally,
this is a year to arise and build our church, both in
the realm of the natural as well as in the realm of
the Holy Spirit. Matthew 16:18 says that Jesus will
"build His church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it". God never asked us to build
Him the largest church but He did ask us to build Him
a very strong church in this nation. This year 2001
we want to see more people serving God within the congregation,
becoming great soul-winners, meeting the needs of the
sick, poor and needy, and actively attending Home Care
Groups.
So, HCC, are you ready to Arise & Build?
Remember, our Vision can only be accomplished if we
work together with all our hearts (Neh
4:6). For then, God will give us success (Neh
2:20). So, what are you waiting for? Let us all
Arise and Build!
Pastor Felix
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