I just came back from 小组 and am very thankful for many issues that were being taught and discussed together with questions that were raised. Among them were very real life issues like BGR/life partner, to doctrines that are labeled controversial like predestination and particular redemption. I am glad that these deep sharings were also carried unto the dinner table. To me, these are very precious. I wished that I had such topics to talk, or just listen to when I was younger. Nevertheless, it is by God’s grace that all these are happening now.
There were lots of “I thinks” during many of these discussions. I think that… But I think that… Yes andI think that… Beyond that, it is serious when all perspectives are shared without a solid rock that we can fall back on to. I do hope more of the Bible can be referred to, though I understand the other ugly side of the picture where verses are thrown out of context just to support a certain view. It is critical that as Bible believing Christians, we must allow the Word of God to take center stage in our discussions. After all, it doesn’t really matter what humans say because only God’s Word count.
I was sharing with a sister that the more I read about God’s word, the more I realize that actually I do not know many things. In the midst of that I came to remember a statement that Piper made in His book.
You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on into eternity, you don’t need to have a high IQ. You don’t have to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things - or one great all-embracing thing - and be set on fire by them.
- Taken from “Don’t Waste Your Life”, by Pastor John Piper, Pg. 44
Amen brother. Amen.