23-July-2012
Yesterday, 22nd July, we attended City Harvest Church at Suntec Convention Center after a period of 6 weeks service in Singapore Expo.
The service started with Praise and Thanksgiving, followed by beautiful worship songs that lasted for 40 minutes. Later Pastor Kong welcomed D.R. A.R Bernard founder of Christian Cultural Center, New York. The whole gathering of 7000 people gave a standing ovation to the Servant of God. He spoke on cultural mandate – Christ in Market Place.
The foundation of the cultural mandate lies in Bible – John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
What’s man that God gave His only begotten Son to die for humanity?
He mentioned that God established Church as a community for spiritual growth and development. People can grow in a community but not in isolation. Culture holds us believers as ocean holds fish. We live in this world, but the world does not live in God’s Kingdom. So there are differences between people of this world and believers.
God sowed Word in the form of body (Jesus Christ) to bring harvest. Now, we the body of Christ are seed of God in this world to make disciples of all Nations. God has made us ambassador in the Culture which may at be your workplace or college or family or business. We must shine for Christ within our culture. We must fully develop our talents, do well in studies and rise up to highest positions, so that the world desire our talent and in return we shine for Christ.
Cultural mandate means God in relationship with human society. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Jesus’ told scribes they do not know scriptures. Man err because they do not know scriptures. Word of God and Prayer is our strength. Romans 12:2 – Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in Prayer. We live by Faith and not by sight, but the world lives by sight, so there is a conflict of perspectives.
God appeared to Abram and told him to depart. After settling in Haran, where his father Terah died, God then told Abram to leave his country and his father’s house for a land that He would show him, promising to make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, bless those who blessed him, and curse those who cursed him. (Genesis 12:1–3) Following God’s command, at age 75, Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the wealth and persons that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan – the promised Land.
Now Sodom and Gomorrah were part of Canaan, cities of immorality. Can you imagine such a place in a promised Land? Ideally, we expect God’s “promise land” to be without conflicts and people living a holy life. This was exactly opposite of what Abraham had experienced. And can you imagine Melchizedek, the King of Salem (which later was named JeruSalem) and the Priest of Most High God, who’s an image of Christ, in Canaan? God’s ways are different from our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He loves human beings and desires everyone to know Him and worship Him alone. We must imitate Abraham who’s the Father of Faith and lived an exemplary life in the land of Canaan. Abraham sojourned different parts of Canaan, he was rich but he was never attached to the riches, for he knew everything was temporary. We must be like Abraham shining for God in the culture where we are placed. After saving Lot his nephew, he honored Melchizedek, King of Salem. We can see that when his wife Sarah died and he asked for piece of land, the princes of the land were willing to offer him the best part of the land free but he didn’t accept instead brought the land for full price.
It’s interesting to explore the history of Canaan, which is the name of Noah’s grandson, Canaan. He was cursed by Noah that he would be a servant to his brothers. Read Genesis 9:20 -27. Abraham is the lineage of Shem, Canaan’s brother.
After service, we had lunch at The Soup Spoon, Raffles city and then in the evening we visited one Ammachy and Appachen in Aljunied. We had dinner from their house and headed home around 10 pm. It was an awesome Sunday. Praise God 🙂
