Filtering
The world is plagued by information - left, right, centre - all over the place. What ought to be absorbed and what ought to be filtered out? I guess sometimes even in church, we face similar "problems".
JK and I were talking about our church youth ministry. He has finally (a few months ago, I was one of the few that he told, as he was considering and wondering if he should make that decision and change at all from his area of D&N into youth ministry) phased himself in to slowly take over the ministry when DH leaves for full-time theological studies. I was asking him the areas he would be focusing on now that he's slowly taking over the ministry, and he said one of his more urgent task was ensuring that our youths learn how to filter information and teachings so that they learn to live as mature Christians in the Lord. I won't elaborate the details of the conversation - not wise of me to do so in an easily accessible www page.
During the conversation itself, I was just reminded of how most of the times, even when listening to sermons, or teachings on God's Word, humandkind just love to hear things that tickle their ears, or words that soothe their hearts, making them comfortable. Little wonder why sometimes churches that chose to preach the "hard" teachings of God are "reducing" in numbers, and those that preach grace and prosperity see flock of people queuing up to attend their services.
I'm not saying there's no place for the preaching of God's grace, but if we emphasize too much on the grace of God, human tendency is we will take the grace of God for granted, and our whole Christian life, or the Christian perspective becomes lopsided. God is a God of grace, at the same time, He is also the God of discipline. He is a God that we ought to fear and revere, and live our life in a careful manner that we do not quench or grief the Spirit of God.
1 Thess 5:16-22 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil."
Well, I guess I can only pray that the Lord will grant JK wisdom to educate and challenge the youths. I know his other concern is also about how he's going to also link the church with the school, an area that he had always hope I'll be there to help (haha, he's still quite "sore" about the fact that I insisted on leaving the school ministry to pursue full-time studies). Well, I don't know if I can be of much help actually, since now JY is there to anchor the ministry, and it's not a nice idea that I still "hover" around.