No Condemnation

by Amanda Grace Teo.

You’re sitting at the back row in service, and just as you were about to get into your ‘worship mode’ and raise your hands to worship, a man walks in. He’s new, you realise very quickly. He isn’t dressed well, he carries a subtle stench of wet grass mixed with nicotine, and he has bruises on his arms. What is your first reaction?

After the service, he decides that he should join a cell group for young adults just as the pastor recommended for every newcomer. How coincidentally, he appears in your cell group on the next Friday night. He begins to share, at a level of vulnerability that none of the other guys in cell group has ever shared. He shares about his past, the way he manipulated, abused and hurt people. He confesses his addiction to cigarettes, alcohol and pornography. He shares that he has lost everything in life – family, money, friends, job and a home.

The men in the group are shifting in their chairs, their glares shifting you’re your leader to each other. They’re uncomfortable because most of your sharing time only went as deep as, ‘I’m not doing well with my wife…she’s just too controlling.’ You begin to observe that some are looking at this man, up and down, repetitively as he speaks. Your peripheral vision reveals that your leader takes out the bible and starts finding a verse, with his lips pursed tight. And then there’s you.

After a month of going to church and cell group every week, the man leaves. No goodbyes, no last notes, nothing. What do you do then?

Are you thankful that such a man has left your group? Are you silently glad that you wouldn’t have to put up with his stench and his incessant talk about his sins, because honestly, you’re afraid that you’ve to reveal yours soon too? Are you curious to find out where he would be? Are you breaking on the inside because a child of God has left your church and your connect group, without finding true Godly love, because all that he received were words of advice of how to quit and how to overcome his overwhelming obstacles?

We are not called to judge. We often see the plank in our neighbours’ eyes so easily, and being good friends, we do our best to help them remove that plank. But we don’t take time to stare at ourselves in the eye, and ask God for His mercy and grace because the plank in our eyes are far greater. 

Unbelievers cannot stop sinning, because they have not received the forgiveness and grace of God to turn away. Believers can, but choose to continuing sinning despite being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to turn away from it.

Don’t correct a sinner’s action but lead him to fix his eyes on Jesus.
Don’t try to change their hearts because that’s God’s job. Just love them.

Written: 4 April 2013

Honour

by Amanda Teo for Kingdom Call Camp 2013

According to the Oxford dictionary,
Honour is to have high respect for or to hold in high esteem.
But more than that, I reckon that honour is far greater than just respect. 
We always say, if you want respect, you’ve got to earn it. 
But can I also say, that we should all, openly and abandonly honour each other without having to earn it.  

In Romans 12 verse 10 it says 
Be devoted to one another in love. Honour each other above yourselves. 

Honour isn’t just a passing compliment, 
Or a gesture of love and encouragement. 
Honour isn’t just given in convenience,
And taken back in an anger’s instance. Honour isn’t recognising someone in public,
And rejecting them when you find out they’re alcoholics. 
Because honour? 
Honour isn’t about…you.  

Honour is given despite who he is or what he has done. 
Honour is about valuing others more than yourself,
Seeing others higher than ourselves. 
Honour is treating someone with integrity,
No matter who they are, to see them with dignity.
Honour is an outstretched arm of unconditional love and an overflow of God’s grace.  

Because Jesus honoured us.
Jesus honoured…you. 
We do not deserve to have Christ value our lives above His.
We did not work or earn His love, and that is His grace. 
But God chose, He chose to see value and potential in us. 
That despite our faults, failures and earthly lust,
He counted us worthy for His death on the cross. 

What is honour?
Honour is the heart you carry in you,
Honour is choosing to extend love and acceptance, in everything you do.
Honour is the opposite of judging someone based on his actions,
And the synonym of looking for the best in him, a strength extraction. 

Honour, honour should be found in the house of our King. 
In His Kingdom where people are searching and seeking. 
Where God has called us to love and honour each other,
Where God’s Kingdom…
HIS kingdom…calls.

Secrets

One of the things I really love and look forward to everyday:
Sharing secrets with God! (:

It’s so exciting, hahaha, seriously! Just the little moments when I get a revelation from Him, or when I give pieces of my heart to God, and He just says “Okay, this is just between us all right? Don’t tell it to anyone else.” Or when I come across a verse, video, sermon, or a song that spoke so much to me, and I’m about to share it online and God says, “I showed that to you, for you. Don’t just give it away to others through Facebook or your blog. It’s yours to keep and savour.”

WOW.

Really encourage and challenge you to share with secrets with Him too! Because it’s only in intimacy that secrets are found. (:

Despite the silence, I’ve found comfort and confidence in the moments when Your voice came through so clearly for me. 

Second Hand Information

by Amanda Grace Teo

Has it occurred to you that so many of us are satisfied with being spoon-fed by Sunday morning’s sermon, instead of pursuing a first-hand relationship with God? We warm the seats every Sunday, being content with basing our entire relationship with God, our convictions, beliefs and values all upon the word given at the pulpit.

I once thought, “what if whatever has been preached over the pulpit has gone off biblical principles?” Would I have been able to pick out, would you? I’m sure if the pastor were to declare that “Jesus is not Lord”, obviously you’d be able to pick that out. But what if it’s just a subtle mistake, that instead of saying 5 barley loaves and 2 fishes, he said 5 unleavened bread and 2 fishes. Well, you might say, “that’s just a small difference or mistake, it doesn’t matter!”  Does the Word of God really not matter?

Our generation’s biggest hindrance to a deep knowledge and understanding of the Word of God is false confidence. Think about it. Often, many of us go to church and digest every word the preacher says, take it into our own system, and regurgitate it out as if it’s our own convictions and beliefs. We become confident in our answers when pre-believers question our faith, but all that comes out from our mouths, really, isn’t a revelation from God, but the revelation our Pastor received from God.

We fall into this pit called self-deception. We think we know the Word, we think we are grounded in our faith. But all that we’ve done is put our life’s moral pillar into the ground of our pastor’s life, and allowed our own ground to be forsaken. We have taken shelter in our Pastor’s house on the rock, and allowed our house to be planted on sinking sand. And honestly, we are quite satisfied about it because we are still getting shelter from the rain, comfort and warmth.

Often, a lot of us will say “because Pastor-so-and-so said that…”. But what does God say? What does He, the maker and creator of your very being, say about you and your life, and the way you should live? What is God’s heart for you?

Don’t get me wrong here. Pastors and leaders are called to know the Bible deeply, so that they’re able to teach and disciple us, and these leaders are so important because God has called them to such a role.  And honestly, without these dedicated servants, I’m not sure where today’s church would be. But God also says in His word to work out your own salvation. God did not say “yes, Ps. Tan shall be your link to Me”, He said “draw near to Me!” God wants a personal relationship with you, not a love triangle among Him, your pastor and yourself!

There was one day when God convicted my heart, and He began to say, “Amanda, lead your members/youths closer to God. When they come to you with a problem, don’t just seek Me and give them an answer or a way out. Bring them, lead them to the very feet of which you kneel before every single day, and teach them what it means to come to Me first, before seeking the counsel of man.”

It has become such an ingrained culture in our society that Christians, especially the younger generation, have chosen complacency over falling in love with our King. We have so easily turned to leaders, online sermons, podcasts and Christian books, because they seem more relevant and interesting. And we have totally lost sight of the wonder and awesomeness of the Holy Bible.

Don’t let regurgitated puke (pardon the image) become your foundation for values and conviction. Pursue after the very Word of God, and make that living word your foundation.

Canvas

As I look upon the canvas on the wall,
The one that has a voice, a deep silent call.
My eyes are strained to capture every nuances,
But no, I can’t blink. It’ll cost me those chances.
Lash by lash, I found my eyes closed,
Afraid to reopen, will the light impose.
Not upon my life, but those around me,
My eyes have been unveiled, but what do I see?
This life is not mine, and neither this flesh,
It’ll soon rot, stink and even turn to ash.
I find myself incomplete, and yet made completely whole,
Knowing that people are friends and the world’s a foe.
The canvas is torn, but mended with stitches,
Each stitch so accurate, like melodious pitches.
The lens before my eyes now do not allow them to shut,
Touching the canvas, and going with my gut.
My fingers senses the texture of His plans,
But O God, what is it at the end?
Father, my heart cries out for a better vision,
Not the dream or goal, but my own perception.
I was blind, but now I see.
I was captured, but now I’m free.
I was in the dark, but now am the light,
But now I need Your grace to fight.
I was weak, but I am made strong,
I was proud, but You proved me wrong.
I know now that it’s not about me,
But it’s all about You, and who You’ve created me to be.
So upon that canvas that depicts my path,
May this seed that I am begin to rathe.