Friday, September 4, 2009

12th Anniversary Service – August 30, 2009

 

The service began with Noel and Nive Eisenberg joining their dad Jürgen in leading the opening songs while mother Indu looks on. image

The church had a very special speaker for our 12th anniversary:

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Pastor Kuru proudly introduced Riya Jacob who grew up in Grace Bible Church and went on to do her biblical studies in the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago.     

Here is what she told us all:

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Remembering God’s Faithfulness:

In celebrating 12 years of journey, we are celebrating ‘our togetherness’, the milestones we’ve covered, the setbacks we’ve had, the people who’ve been a part of us, our ministries at Grace Bible church, and above all God’s faithfulness in leading us to be the church that He wants us to be.

Remembering who we are:

When we think of church, we think of it in terms of the partial picture of what a church is, most commonly as a building or a place of worship. Therefore, Peter implores us to take a deeper look at what it means for us to be a church, to recognize who we are in light of who God has called us to be.

Paul in this letter earnestly calls the Christian believers to take upon this great privilege reminding us in 1 Peter 2:9-10 that:

* We are people who’ve been called, named, and destined. We are no longer people who are groping about in darkness, but people who have been given a name, people with a unique purpose, a much higher calling than this world can ever offer.

*We are now people who are part of the redeemer’s plan of making for Himself a remnant, a people who are called to carry His name forth.

* Although we are strangers and aliens of this world, we are no longer rejected or abandoned, but people who are carefully joined together to form the household of God, the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit or in other words, the church, the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 2:21- 22)

Remembering the task:

With this great privilege also comes great responsibility to live a life that is worthy of our calling:

In a world where success is measured by numbers and our identity by what we do, we easily confuse our calling with doing one activity after the other. While doing certainly has its proper place, being a church means something more than just going about our day or merely getting the work done.

*First, Peter says that He calls us to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness in to His marvelous light” ~ We have been called forth to announce, to tell, to declare, to speak a word of love, of grace in the darkest, difficult, incomplete, irregular path of life. *Secondly, He calls us because of who He is and not because of the perfect life that we lead (‘coz we don’t & He is not impressed with the ways that we try to be perfect either) It is because of His grace alone that we are called forth.

* He calls us in our imperfectness, in our brokenness to be something more of a creative force in this world. Regardless of who we are and where we’ve been, He calls us to be the church in the darkest valley, in the midst of doubt, confusion, and chaos.

*We are called forth to be agents of change to those around us, in our work places, neighborhood, in our church, schools and colleges in order to speak a word of kindness, of goodness to the parched world, ever so thirsty for the goodness of the Lord. In 1 Peter 2: 10-12, Peter reminds us that we are called forth as people who has tasted His goodness, as people who’ve been shown mercy, as people who have received grace. The call is to rise up to be the people of grace, mercy, and of goodness to others. There are enough people to criticize, to condemn, and to judge but very few to love, and to be the agents of grace.

* The challenge, therefore, is to rise above these typical patterns of the world that may not always be easy, fun, or as great as it sounds. Nevertheless, we are called, both as individuals and on a cooperate level to surrender and to lean in to listen to the Spirit as He leads us to be the church that God intends us to be.

The service was followed by a special time of fellowship:

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