Centre for Transformation and Development

每间教会都希望看到复兴，因为复兴会有很多人信主，使到教会成长。又加上很多所谓的先知预言复兴的到来，促使教会都兴奋了起来。原本兴奋起来是件好事，但却使教会举办更多的活动。教会愿意花时间金钱去举办活动，但却没时间栽培门徒，只希望门徒会自己成长和照顾自己的灵命。但门徒却常常因为服事而忽略了自己的灵命。虽然教会又讲台和主日学做教导，他们却不知道这些是不足够的。要让所听到的和学到的融入我们的生命中，还需要有旁人指点，就象耶稣花时间作个人栽培一样。如果教会要复兴，除了要积极祷告，我们还需要门徒的更新。如果门徒的心意更新，那复兴的脚步就进了。但如果没有更新，复兴后的教会是很可怕的，而且会有许多的问题。希望我们认真看待教会更新的挑战，为主打美好的战！

走出这旷野之地
奔向神那应许地
这里不是停留处
只是条必经之路

走出这旷野之地
不再徘徊是非地
脱去重担和罪恶
收拾心情往前行

走出这旷野之地
不再犹豫和恐惧
求主塑造更新我
紧握救恩信靠主

走出这旷野之地
跟随耶稣的脚迹
坚信神赐之应许
共庆禧年皆欢喜

副歌：
请引领我  奇妙的神
全能的主  完成主命
到达主那  应许之地

通常我们都很在乎我们成就什么，无论是事业或是自己的生命，甚至服事都是这样。我们因为要有成就，常常忽略我们成为怎样的人，忘了过程比目标还重要。如果我们为了达到目标而失去了自己，那又何为的成就呢？在我们追求成就的当儿，别失去自己，因为神的目的是通过追求成就的过程来改变我们，使我们成为更像耶稣的人。朋友们，如果我们得着这世界，却失去了自己又如何？

有些人什么事都只为自己着想，不顾别人的利益，也不会想到神的旨意。又有些人，为了神愿意牺牲自己。但却连自己的灵命和家庭也牺牲了。何为为己为神呢？为己不应是为自己的利益着想，而应该是为自己的灵命着想。我们不能为了服事而不顾自己的灵命。其实失去了灵命就等于失去了服事神的能力。我们绝对不能以服事为借口。为神也不应是为神做很多的事，而是完成神要在我们生命中的过程，并成为神所喜悦的人和完成神在我们这一生中的旨意，而不是达到我们所有的目标。

享福通常是建立在一些物质和时空上的东西，例如我们想要得到的东西或是想拥有的假期和休闲的时光。而幸福通常就超越这些东西。它可以是一种内心的平安与喜乐，一种金钱买不到的满足。我们向神所求的祝福是享福多，还是幸福多呢？我们可别把信心建立在享福上，因为它们是短暂的。我们应把信心建立在神本身，因为他才是我们最大的祝福-永远不变的幸福。如果耶和华是我们的牧者，我们还缺乏什么呢？

The Great Commission has been used to drive many churches today. Indeed, it is a commandment of the Lord and there is a great urgency to spread the Good News. However, the Great Commission has often been taken solely as a task. It has been used as a great excuse to build bigger churches. As such, many churches today emphasize more on growth in numbers than true discipleship. They are prone to use fruitfulness to refer to the number of converts the believers won rather than their Christlikeness. There’s a great need to interpret the Great Commission correctly. I humbly suggest three important aspects after I reflected on what Senior Pastor Edmund Chan said about it being more an alignment than an assignment.

The first is that it gives us a purpose rather than a project. When Jesus gave the Commission to the disciples. It was not a project, but a purpose. This purpose would reorientate the disciples’ lives so that they would go after the heartbeat of the Father.

Secondly, it gives us a process rather than a point. The Great Commission is not about making converts so that churches can report a greater number and show their results. Some churches today are just playing the number game. In Jesus’ ministry, He never went for numbers. Besides going out to make disciples, the Church is supposed to go teach and baptise the disciples as well. Jesus is more concerned about putting the disciples through the discipling process. It is only through this process that the disciples can become more like Christ and embrace the purpose of God.

Thirdly, it is about His presence rather than our performance. Many a times, we are measured by our performance. Those people who can bring more people to church are seemingly more important. Evangelism is reduced to a matter of goals, strategies and methods. We forget that evangelism is actually the work of God. We can only sow, but it is God who make them grow. It is not dependent on our performance. Evangelism without God’s presence is meaningless. Jesus wants us to know that the Great Commission is about bring His presence on earth, just as His kingdom is here with us today.

How we wish we can know all of God’s plan for us all at one time. We don’t like the feeling of uncertainty and unpredictability. That’s why some people turn to fortune-telling or horoscopes. They didn’t know that these occults only whet our appetite. Worse, they create self-fulfilling prophecies which cause our hearts to fear our tomorrow. The reason why God doesn’t tell us what’s going to happen and why some things are happening is because God wants us to know that He is greater than our tomorrow. We should trust Him and seek Him. He will guide us by our hands and show us one step at a time. Don’t complain that one step is too little when we cannot even walk properly, not to even say run properly. If God were to unveil all of His plan for us today all at one go, I wonder how many of us would fall off our chairs and die of heart attack. For our sake, God only reveal what our faith can take lest we get scared to death. If we want to know more about our future, the only way is to increase our faith.

There are some events in our Christian walk that occur at a point in time while some others happen as a process. However, we tend to confuse the two of them because it is not easy to differentiate the two and is difficult to explain them. Those things that should occur at a point we delay. But those things that need a longer time to accomplish we hope that they can take place at a point. There are two important issues here. Firstly, decisions should happen at a point though they themselves need processes to derive at. Examples are our repentance and our responses to God. Through different processes, God leads us to repentance and respond to Him and we make a decision at a point in time. After we derive at a decision or a response at a point in time, it would then trigger a process again. This is the process of santification – a process by which God purifies and refines us through a period of time. Secondly, the process of sanctification helps us to fulfill our decision but not to reverse the decision. Simply put, sanctification takes time. Most of us do not change overnight although we have decided or responded to turn from our old self, unless there is a direct intervention from God. We would still fall into temptations in that process, but we should not be discouraged and think it is better to go back to our old life instead. What is important in the sanctification process is that we should be sinning less and getting more sensitive to sins. We should not return to our old life just because we have not been able to fully kick away our bad habits. Sanctification seldom happens at a point but it is usually a process to help us fulfill our decisions or responses to God. Let us not delay our decisions to respond and be patient during the sanctification process.

The object of our faith is an important question because it deals with “on what” and “on whom” we are building our faith upon. Before we believe in Jesus, we used to build our faith on other religions, career, wealth, success, family or even on ourselves. But after we accept Jesus, it is a process to dethrone these objects we have been building our faith on. Sometimes we can be going to church without changing our allegiance. What’s more, in church, we can end up building our faith on the church’s name, programs,  pastors and leaders, and our friends too. Our allegiance must be to God and God alone. Our faith must be built on God and God alone. It cannot be built on things or people. Remember when everything collapses, God will never change.