Woohoo... finally, I have the time and mood to blog about the Youth and Young People's (YYP) Conference, held in Hall 1 from 1-4 June 2008. Well, because right after the YYP Conference, I had to get busy with children's camp administrative matters and right after the camp I've got to do audio editing for the YYP conference. Busy schedule eh?
Haha. Anyway, down to the point about the YYP Conference. The theme for this year's camp is "Saved to Serve" and the main verse used in this camp is from Hebrews 9:14.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Ok. A brief summary. In this camp, it starts off by telling us of our position before God - before we are saved, we were slaves to sin and the Devil. We were once darkness. But after we saved, we are sons of God, priests to God, God's own special people, servants of God. Then we moved on to discuss the reasons for serving God:-
1. We belong to Him; therefore it is only right to serve Him.
2. Our God wants to gain His Kingdom on earth today.
3. We are to work in His vineyard, His kingdom, His church.
4. He first loved us so we love Him and what more better to show our love to Him than through serving Him!
Next, we went on to talk about how serving the Lord requires a new Goal, Attitude and Living. Service is R.E.A.L - Redeemed, Eternal, Attitude, Lifestyle.
When serving the Lord, we need to set our goal on eternity because the reward for serving Him cannot be seen in this lifetime, but only when He returns the second time to judge and reward us. Also, we need to see that serving God is our eternal job.
After seeing this goal/vision, we need to have a change in attitude when serving the Lord. When we serve Him, we need to humble ourselves before Him, having a poor and contrite spirit before Him. On top of that, we need to have a good and noble heart to hear God's Word, understand our need to serve God alone, be in the world but not of the world, and a sacrificial living before Him. Having the right attitude is important in order for God to use us for His service.
Lastly, our living before Him must change too. We must come to realise that LOVE is the abiding principle that we must have in our living before God. When we serve, we need to know that we are serving not only for God but also for the brothers and sisters around us. That's because in Matthew 22:37-39 (and this portion can be found in the rest of the four gospels), it tells us clearly that the first and great commandment is that we should love our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind; and the second is to love our neighbour as ourselves. Therefore in our service, we should show and live it such that whatever we do, we do it all for God and for our fellow brothers and sisters. Besides serving in terms of meeting the saints' needs, we can also serve God in our living through consecrating our lives to Him each day; and also to read His Word and pray to Him. In both cases, an altar living is being lived out because in such a living, we need to set up our altar before Him to bring to Him sacrifices - both our lives and our daily reading and praying are the 'sacrifices' we present to God that are pleasing in His sight. Also, we need to obey His word and His will, for in the Word it is mentioned that "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (things that we may need) will be added to you". Lastly, we need to serve the Lord Christ in all situations - whether we are husband/wife/children/masters/bondservants. We need to see that by serving each other in our different roles, we are actually serving God and hence we must serve heartily to God and not as men-pleasers only. Remember, we are servants of the Lord who happens to be a student/person at work/housewife etc.
Ok. Guess I type too long for a summary. But bascially, one of the points which I enjoyed in this conference was that our service in the church is not only restricted to because we love God, but that I saw a new dimension that our service is actually also for the brothers and sisters around us. Now that when I think back on why I went into service for audio/ushering/children's camp, I realise that my motive was more so for personal interests rather than for the sake of the brethren. However, as time passes by, thank the Lord that He cause me to see the real reasons that I should serve in all the services that I am involved in. And even up till now, I am still slowly discovering and changing my attitude towards my service for God. All thanks to His grace and mercy that He showed me all my weaknesses and how I should change for the better to serve and take care of His body. And through our service before Him, God's love should also be pouring forth to more people through us - just like the analogy that brother say kin showed us during one of the meetings, where he poured water (representing God's love) into one cup (representing us) and the water which overflowed that one cup continue to fill up the other cups (representing people around us) surrounding that particular cup. Amen!
Well, it's very very late now... Mum's nagging at me now. Got to go now... :) May God continue to bless each and everyone of us :))
