God intents for us to be the new wine skin for the New Wine (Lk.5:36-39). We do not normally feel comfortable to change. We feel more secure doing the things as usual but when we see what God intends us to be we must facilitate His move.

First, we begin with trust to work (Heb.4:10) . This does not mean we do nothing but it should be done out of trust first. This is not usual because we feel more secure with what we have done and expect results only after we have done. However, God is calling us to rest on what He has already done. We are simply to facilitate what we see with our spiritual eyes and hear with our spiritual ears what He has done and spoken. Our service is then out of Restedness and not anxiety.

Second, we practice grace instead of law (Gal.2:21). Grace and truth goes together and it’s projecting Christ that we do in our conversation and conduct. We are naturally inclined to project our credibility from our position, background and competence instead of the truth that we are nothing except by the grace of God. It’s functioning from the position of who we are in Christ and having Him works through us. We will then function by love above the gifts we have.

Third, we be childlike in our faith in the things of God (Matt.18:3-4); it may not be what is culturally dignified, e.g., we worship in spirit and truth above our tradition and theology, seeking to please Him by our spontaneity than being self or people conscious. When the Spirit of God moves we are there to facilitate Him and let Him have His own ways.

By these we endeavor the work of the Spirit to remain in our church as we relate to the Person and not religion. The new wine skin will bring the new wine to those around.

By the power and strength of the Lord, we can have dreams and aspirations for Him. If a person does not have any dreams or aspirations, he or she goes through the same routine daily, living a life of monotony. The world has seen continuous improvement because some great people had great dreams. Not only did they dream, but they sacrificed much to actualize their dreams, pursuing their dreams with integrity, courage and honesty

Dear church, our God not only dreams, but gives dreams to people. Although the situation before us may be imperfect and less than ideal, we can dream of a better state of affairs and hope that these dreams can come true. God has never given up on dreams. For generations, God has given dreams to those who love Him and enabled them to see that He would ultimately turn the situation around. How do we start dreaming?  Well, it is to look forward in faith, the ability to see your dreams.

The Bible provides many such examples. Abraham did not have any children. God spoke to Abraham asked him to look up towards the heavens and count the stars. At that time, Abraham was living in the wilderness in Beer-sheba. There were neither electric lamps nor oil lamps. When he left his tent and looked at the sky, it was ablaze with billions of stars. God told Abraham that his descendants would be countless as the number of stars.

Let Hinghwa starts afresh having a new style of administrating the outreach and social concerns events.  A Season of Gathering the Family of God through Church-wide combined prayer meeting on 29th June 2012 and 31st Dec 2012, committing and equipping our people to serve in the power of the Holy Spirit in the various congregations.

A thought came to me while I was walking towards church. The thought was about having margin in our lives. It will be instrumental for God’s use and it will do us good. For the past week, I was given quite a few opportunities to interact with commuters, share my experiences, helped a person on the wheelchair, gave up a seat to a mother with a child and observed human behaviour. I thought it is exciting especially if I can share my faith with those I meet. As I reflect on this, I realise that it will be difficult for me to do so if I am on the vehicle. Personally, for this season of my life, this is the margin that is created whereby I can be flexible to allow God to write in it. It will add in another dimension to my faith journey. Like a notebook with a margin drawn, I would like to encourage all of us to have margin in our lives.

What is this margin about?

I would like to liken it to the time that we have. In the Bible, time can be equated to opportunity. And we are challenged to make the most of every opportunity in the days that we are living. (Eph 5:16). We are also challenged by Paul to pray that God will give us many opportunities to speak about Christ and that we will be wise to make the most of every opportunity. (Col 4:2-5)

But the problem is that if we do not create the margin in our lives, then there will not be any space for God to write on. When opportunities arise, we may not have the time or flexibility to seize them. Imagine the frustration that comes when you have a good inspiration out of the sudden to write but there is no more space left on that piece of paper. Personally I believe that more opportunities will be given. I believe that God wants to use us more. But if we do not have the margin for God to write, we can miss out so much.