I am looking forward to preaching this Sunday. Tonight I am leading special prayers, our church's turn once a year to pray in our HQ's prayer hall. Last Sunday I preached from the whole chapter of Proverbs 8. This Sunday it will be the whole chapter of John 8. By month's end, I will return to my 1 Corinthians series by preaching the whole chapter 1 Cor 8, then 1 Cor 9. Everyone wants to lead a life of meaning and purpose.
That's what gets me up in the morning, nowadays as early as 3.30am on occasions and today by 4.30am I was doing work after a 30 minute devotion. Why is a meaningful life so important? Because a meaningless life is simply a drudgery and a bore. Who wants to wake up just to make more money to put food on the table like the Gentiles do as Jesus says. But for us Christians, it is seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things are added to you.
Just in the past week, after New Year's Day, I went shopping for external SSD storage. My laptop that I bought when I started teaching in STS July 2023 was one with 512GB storage and it has long run out of space. For more than a year, I kept deleting files and short videos. I normally transfer my recordings of my sermons from my phone to my laptop to trim or edit before uploading to my YouTube channel. Just a few people watch it, but there are at least two of my former students (now pastors) based in the interior that follow my channel closely. But my problem is the 8GB of RAM in my MacBook Air and the previous one which I bought in Feb 2018 at Changi Airport actually crashed second week into my lectures and it is unusable now. I should have gone for the 16GB RAM, but cheapened out. Now I have to consider what to do next if I go writing full-time again.
I spent about RM5,000.00 into moving into my College's apartment in June 2023 (RM2,500 just for an air-cond unit) and first day at office I paid the RM1,000.00 deposit for the Faculty's trip to South Korea which at the end I did not go and no refund given. It is all in my book, "Anak Panah". It was just on Christmas Day when a family friend invited me and wife for Christmas dinner that he told me when a pastor asked him why I left the College after one year - "Pst Tony would not pass a doctoral candidate just because the person is his colleague". Only good friends know what you stand for. Praise God for that!
That was a massive conflict of interest, yet no office holder seems to know or acknowledge that possibility as I spoke directly in private with each one of them in their offices. The lack of awareness of issues of bias, integrity and transparency was certainly one main reason that I resigned after less than one Semester there giving more than 8 months' notice. One lives (and dies) by one's principles based on God's Word.
What is a meaningful life? I listed 7 reasons given in John 8. First, knowing Jesus and following Him and we shall have the light of life (8:12). That's the main theme. Second, knowing our origins and our destination - "I know where I came from and where I am going" Jesus says. Third, believing Jesus is Lord and God. - unless you believe that I am He you shall die in your sins. A meaningful life is life freed from sin and if the Son sets one free, we are free indeed. Fourth, a meaningful life is life knowing and abiding in the truth. I shall write a longer blogpost after preaching and we will see how it goes.
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