Queen's Road Cell

I. Resource allocation The church has the mission to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:18-20). This is our FFMC vision. We are to baptize people (a one-off event) and to teach them to observe all that Jesus has taught (a continuing work). All local churches therefore have ministries that focus on outreach to non-believers as well as ministries to disciple believers. In addition, there are ministries of the church that are administrative or operational in nature. We affirm that all these ministries are of value, although the importance of particular ministries may differ according to institutional factors (e.g. mandated ministries in the Methodist Book of Discipline) as well as with the needs of the moment (e.g. China CN ministry). We have previously said that all ministries must be aligned to the overall disciplemaking vision of the church (LCEC retreat May 2013). We said that: •           All activities and ministries m...

Today Chee Boon joined as as the visiting PLT member (they are going round to different SGs) Joshua asked if the Holy Spirit was active in sanctification of believers in the OT. We note that the Spirit was given only on select individuals prior to Pentecost - to kings (1 Sa 10:10, 11:6, Ps 51:11), prophets, judges and craftsmen (Ex 31:13).It is interesting that even in the OT the manifestations of the Spirit's power was different in different individuals. Joel 2:28-29 looks forward to the time when all God's p eople will be recepients of God's Spirit. And we are individually (1 Co 6:19) and corporately (1 Co 3:16) the temple of the Spirit. So we can be sure that we enjoy the blessings of the New Covenant paid in Christ's blood in a way that OT saints did not. But I believe the Bible does not rule out a lesser work of the Spirit in the preservation and sanctification of His people. Shaun asked about the bodily resurrection of the godly dead at the time of Jesus'...

I felt we should begin the study by looking at 1 Co 7 and 2 Co 6 first. 1 Co 7 is admittedly difficult. Paul writes in response to a question raised by the Corinthian church (v.1) and talks in the chapter about marriage and singlehood. He strongly affirms the worth of singlehood: "I wish that all were as I myself am" (v.7, 26, 37). The one who has singleheartedly and willingly refrains from marriage does 'even better' than the one who is married. The reason Paul gives for this is because the single person can devote himself or herself solely to please the Lord, will not be anxious about worldly things and will not have divided interests.(v.32-34). Paul certainly does not disapprove of marriage (v.28, 38, cf. Eph 5:22-33, 1 Ti 4:1-4), but his perspective (and therefore God's perspective) of the superiority of singlehood as a spiritual choice is quite counter-cultural. Both singlehood and marriage are spiritual gifts of grace (charismata), which require the exercis...

“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:27-28) The disciples of Jesus had been upset with one another because James and John had asked to be  pre-eminent – the greatest - in Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus took the opportunity to teach His disciples about greatness. He does not discourage the desire to be great – but he tells them to change their ideas about what greatness means. To them and according to the world’s ways of doing things, greatness means being honoured by others, being able to impose authority on others, and being served by others. But Jesus says us that real greatness has nothing to do with how others regard us, but by how God regards us. The kind of greatness God desires is in a heart that can humble itself to serve people. Greatness in the eyes of God is measured in servanthood. Th...

We finished the study this week I was sharing that I used to think that all that 1 Ti 6:9-10 meant was that money caused many kinds of evil, but that other kinds of evil had nothing to do with money. But we now understand that valuing/treasuring money as a representation of what the world can offer is completely opposed to valuing/treasuring God (making us unable to serve both). We can see (c.f. John Piper), that all the evils of this world eventually arise from hearts that love and treasure money. The desire for money leads to ruin and destruction, loss of faith and many griefs. Conversely, if we treasure God rather money, we will have hearts (our inmost beings, the seat of our wills and emotions) placed on what we value. So Mt 6:21 is a call to choose our values right, because our hearts will inevitably follow that which we treasure. If we love God we will not be anxious about our basic needs. God knows all our tomorrows. We are told that it is none of our business to be anxious a...

We began by trying to define what 'money' is, and we said that it is a way of measuring value. We exchange money for what is valuable to us - goods or services. Money is a symbol of all the world can offer (Piper). And money has such a hold on us, because it is 'congealed life' (Zacharias), that we have to invest time and energy to obtain. The Bible neither says that money is good or bad. Money can be a blessing from God, but it can also be a curse that draws us away from God. Money represents a system that is opposed to God (Mt 6:24). Money is dangerous. It takes a supernatural work of God to save us from our love of the world that money represents (Mk 10:23-25) We talked about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. The theme of the parable is stewardship - the use of resources given to us that are not our own. We are to be responsible and accountable for what we have, since it all comes from God. The return expected of us must be in proportion to what we have b...