Labouring in Hope

It has been a while I have had such a busy week from Saturday to Friday. I could hardly keep my eyes open during the Colloquium, though I managed to follow the discussion on the Trinity and World Religions. The general view seems to be that the Spirit is at work in other religions in the world, but I thought one has to be more concrete and specific in speaking of the Spirit of God active within other religions. I managed to raise one question at the end, quoting John 14 where Jesus says that "where the Spirit of truth comes, which the world cannot receive, nor can the world see him or know him." I suppose any theologian that argues for the Spirit's activity in the world must contend with this Jesus saying. Although it does not say that the Spirit does not work in the world but what it affirms is that the world cannot receive the Spirit or know the Spirit. But Jesus in John's Gospel goes on to say that the Spirit is with you (plural, the church or body of believers) and because we know the Spirit we are able to see Jesus Christ in all his glory and the salvation that only Jesus can bring.

After 4pm, I returned to my apartment and rested. I woke up for dinner, exhausted. Perhaps I was running on adrenalin the whole week; sometimes we mistake human exertion for the work of the Spirit. I do hope my labours in the Lord are Spirit-led and Spirit-energized and not my own doing or of the flesh. I must have answered 30 questions lasting over an hour in 2 separate sessions during the Revelation's seminar last Saturday beside the 5 full sessions which I spoke for an hour or more each. I did not know how I could preach the next morning on Sunday at 8:30am with the same energy level, in fact I felt a surge of anointing at various times as I preached. The Lord anointed me for His work and established me with His people in Sabah just as Paul wrote in 2 Cor 1. There were more people who came for the seminar from outside of Kota Kinabalu where I served from 1995 to 2008 after a year in a village called Melangkap. The seeds I sowed from travelling throughout the State of Sabah (Sabah is 100 times bigger than Singapore) are beginning to bear fruits. I pray that my labours are not in vain (I quoted Isa 49:3-4 in my Sunday sermon) and that God's people are built up, equipped and made ready for every good work.