Last Sermon of 2008

Its the last Sunday of 2008, and the last sermon of the year. The grand finale. I rarely blog about my Sundays, so today is special. At this time of the year, most of us would do our annual reflections, and more importantly, our new year resolutions.

My Sundays is spent like how other typical Christian do on a Sunday. Church and perhaps cell group. My order is reversed; cell group, then followed by church. I felt really blessed by both today.

First part of my sharing comes from my gains from cell group. I got a kick-start on thinking about my new year resolutions. During cell group, we had worship session and we sang 4 songs unto the Lord. Its been a long time since we had worship as a cell. The sharing today was a little different from the usual bible study. We were given chance to do our reflections based on a few guided questions (for your reference if you're keen to start on your reflection):

1) What are the SIGNIFICANT EVENTS that happened in 2008?
2) What is GOD telling you through these events?
3) What are your VALUES in your life?
4) What are your PASSIONS? i.e. what EXCITES you?
5) What are your GIFTS/STRENGTHS?
6) What are your CONVICTIONS?
7) What are the measurable, relevant & time-specific GOALS for 2009?
8) Who can help you to reach these GOALS?

Personally, I haven't consolidated my thoughts about all the above, so I won't be sharing it for now, else it'll be kinda messy. I surely think that this is a relevant exercise, because you'll be amazed how God can reveal things to you, or simply put, how much you learn about yourself after reflecting.


Part 2 of my sharing is about the sermon entitled "Preparation for a New Start".

3 factors of a fulfilled year:
1) How to learn from the past
2) How to plan for the future
3) How to begin to take actions NOW

Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind (leave the past behind) and straining toward what is ahead (move forward from now on),
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize (reach for the ultimate) for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The italicized words are to emphasize the 3 steps to start anew. A brand new 2009 is awaiting us!! It has all the blanks pages for us to write on. Of course, I am excited to embark on this new journey with the Lord (& my dear), hoping to grow stronger spiritually, emotionally and physically! May God bless you for reading all these! :)

Happy New Year in advance!