Start to Live Meaningfully

 

 

Love

 

We must be careful before we share love to others, because we must first receive love ourselves. God is already pleased with us, but this is not easy to understand. God's very motive of creating us is to love us, because He is our Father and He chose to adopt us before the creation of the world. This is His original intention. However, as we go along with all the likeness of being a blessed child that carries the cross, we lose His original intention for us, and His originally intended way to share lives while serving Him.

 

Play

 

How do we check to see that we are being loved? We can do so by seeing whether we can “play” in all things. Do not be played along by money, lust, limited time in the office, etc. The shepherd loves his sheep but it is very easy to be bounded by the love and concern for them. When some accidents happen to the sheep, the way to love is to “play” with their encounters. Discouragements are to be “played” by praying and seeking His plan for the sheep. We have processes to go through in life, but there are precious lessons of endurance instead of just sufferings that He has fixed for us to play. This is to “play” in the relationships that God has fixed for us to be with. We need to preserve our hearts and minds within the relationships that we have. They may not be blessed yet and they may make demands or they may not know how to live with us well. Yet, if we know how to “play”, we know how to be happy by looking at their timetable, and thus God's plan to us then: how to live as a son, for example, with a non-believing father. If one knows how to “play”, God will hand the whole era over to him.

 

Success <-> Play (happiness, enjoy blessings, daily do)

 

However, workers fail because they often separate success from “play”. Youths like us surely like excitement and we may also like to watch TV. We must not live with an accused heart, or with setbacks affecting us after preparing our whole life for that very meeting. This is the reason why anointing never comes to us. For example, if God has put the interests on computers or playstation portable in us, when we just play or waste a lot of time on them (resulting in “failures”), and focus on why we fail, we will continue to receive an accused heart and not know God’s perfect will.

 

Desire / Longing

 

Some of us can sleep 12 hours. Some like to eat. Some like to watch television. Some like to fantasize being with handsome guys. Some like to laze around, but it is alright because man needs rest also. If we remove all these desires, we will not look like humans anymore. The reason for God to have all these is to want us to play. It is definitely not wrong to be warm-hearted towards people, but be balanced. However, some have such desires or longing to a greater measure. The wise way to deal with this is to format up God's intended balance, and to work towards that balance without being accused along this process. In fact, if we have found the right way to play while having such desires, we will even receive a lot of messages. There is God's protection and compassion amidst desires to be in touch with the opposite gender. When we gather more and more compassion towards even the opposite gender, we will realize that compassion has eaten up lust one day. We must gather a principle and concept to live, or we will only be accused as we live along. God has different commission for different workers; therefore He gives different measures of desires in us. If we are able to face God with such longing amidst our “play”, we are already winning. We must grasp the way to “play” because our 70 to 80 years of life on earth will quickly pass away if we just think it will be better tomorrow.

 

Playing = enjoying the process / getting in touch

 

Happy people do not think that it will be better if they receive extras. If we do not have a child yet, “play” on how to be more united as one body. This is glorifying God. Paul loved the gospel to the extent that if he did not have a chance to preach the gospel, he would continue to think about the gospel when alone. A swimmer does not swim in suffering, but he loves to swim. If a pastor really loves His brothers and sisters, yet does not know how to play, he will really have his life shortened because it will be a life of suffering, even for a small church of 50.

 

 

 

Ecclesiastes "Play"

 

1. We Must Pass Through Ecclesiastes

 

1) Meaningless (dead, sin, evil spirits)

 

Solomon played with a lot of things, including various knowledge, food and women, but he found that all these passed away and they were meaningless even if there were successes in them.

 

It is a paradox. If we have discovered that watching television or touring are meaningless, we will be able to enjoy watching television and touring. Those who have not seen vanity will be bounded by the idols of television, emotions and touring. Even marriage and bearing children are meaningless because 70 and 80 years of life come and go. But if we have the reason of God in it, we will enjoy and have fruits.

 

2) Jesus Christ (eternal, grace, effectiveness)

 

If we do anything in Jesus Christ, there will be eternal crown in it, receive the grace of God helping us in the midst of our work, and there will surely be effect if we pray for our loved ones.

 

Raising difficult children becomes meaningful when we have discovered that the perfect will is to teach them according to the instruction of the Lord. There is nothing we cannot do if we have restored the meaning of Jesus Christ.

 

3) Enjoy blessings

 

Matthew 6 says that even the flowers in the fields are clothed better than the glory of Solomon, how much more us who are the children of God. Therefore, we are to enjoy blessings.

 

=>

 

 

2. The 7 conditions of happiness

 

1) Eternal assurance

 

2) Hear and see God

 

3) Perfect will -> I

 

"I" am the subject of God's perfect will. For example, if we go to work for the sake of going to work, there is a sense of dryness in it. If we have assurance that we go to work, or the things that happen in the church are for us, then we are in the central plan of God and we will be happy.

 

4) Provider (spirit, wisdom, physical, finance, manpower)

 

The provider of all the right spiritual values are besides us. The people closest to us give us the most lessons to learn.

 

5) Things that should be done

 

Man must know what he must do at his present moment to be happy. He must also know what to do right then to avoid rushing like a train later on.

 

6) Focus: center on blessing people

 

There are some things we may not be able to say to our loved ones, but when we are together with them, we can pray for them with a heart of blessing them.

 

7) Adding crown <-> evidence

 

 

 

The Method

 

Ecclesiastes 8:1-6

 

1 Who is like the wise man?

Who knows the explanation of things?

Wisdom brightens a man's face

and changes its hard appearance.

 

There is nothing that is fair in this world. However, wisdom will brighten a man's face.

 

2 Obey the king's command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king's presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king's word is supreme, who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,

and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,

though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him.

 

There is a proper time and procedure in all things we do.

 

Ecclesiates 9:7-10

 

7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

 

 

1. Proper procedure (Life system) = 20 Basic Messages

 

1) With us

 

All things are always with us. We see it through

 

(1) Word (Logos) -> Perfect will (Rhema)

 

The word is what is unchangeable and absolute. God's plan on us is unchangeable. If you know God, you will know His perfect will from Logos. If one only gathers history, setbacks from bad experiences or only knowledge through the word, he does not know God. Do we read the newspaper seeing through the matters of the era?

 

(2) Jesus Christ -> Relationship (Father-son, Master-servant, King-people) => Submission (Cross)

 

There are some sufferings that result from sins. However, His intention is for us to submit till the cross.

 

(3) Holy Spirit -> Strength of the Heart

 

We bless by the strength of the heart.

 

2) Converse

 

(1) Child

 

(2) Promise (4 gospelization, Emmanuel)

 

(3) Healing (Power, Sanctification)

 

We meet God to be healed.

 

(4) Living (practical)

 

The events in living give us prayer topics. We remove all things that has no connection with our living, so that we become practical.

 

(5) Victory

 

3) Walk with God

 

(1) Worship (love, perfect will)

 

In worship, we must not be ritualistic, but we must at the very least see the love of God on us and at least know what God's perfect will is even though we may not know every bit of it.

 

(2) Parts of Body in the church

 

Do you email with your parts of Body of Christ? Is the first person to find when in suffering is the brethren in church. May the disciples in our meeting today restore prayer meeting.

 

(3) 7 Fields

 

(4) 8 Beatitudes

 

(5) Disciples

 

 

2. Proper timetable (Living Operating System) <Acts>

 

Ecclesiastes talks about the proper time, not about waiting. It is the process that continues to receive fulfillments. Discouragement is not in the vocabulary if the prayer topics come when you have reached a certain timetable.

 

1) <1:1-11> Promise

 

This is the first thing to restore.

 

2) <1:13-14> Joined Constantly in Prayer (Test and approve -> things that should be done -> submit)

 

After prayers, the apostles knew they should first build up the foundation of the church by choosing the twelfth apostle.

 

3) <2:1-4> Holy Spirit filled (Daily, All things)

 

There is a Holy Spirit-filled image across all different things that we do. One day, we may find that we like to do the work God has given us in our office, and we go to work with a mission.

 

4) <2:5-41> Honorable person, Doors of Evangelism

 

5) <2:42-47> Gather (120->3000)

 

In fact, when disciples gather, more problems result as there will be people in poverty, etc to take care and manage. If we are not in this timetable, we will only be weak and be tossed about. However, if we are in this timetable, we can be weak, but we will be protected.

 

The year 2008 is going to come soon, but do you have a conclusion that your timetable in year 2007 is already a success?

 

 

Short Discipleship Training Transcript on 14 December 2007.