Straight From My Heart

Hello! Welcome to our worship service today. It's always a pleasant sight to see God's people gathered in the Lord's day like this to praise and to pray. Our presence here is a symbol of God's grace abounding, from your choice to come to worship and from the time you took your ride or walked to this place God's grace was and is at work. It is The Lord who put the desire in our hearts to be with God's people today, it is also through the working of the Holy Spirit that are all able to worship today. Prayerfully let us savor every moment and engage ourselves to prayer as we listen and seek God. No one should go home empty handed when the heart is hungry for God. As the old Methodist preacher would say only those who are filled with themselves will go home empty in heart. And that those who came empty will go home filled. With this I remember the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount " Blessed are the poor in spirit....." Let The Lord do the subtraction of the unnecessary in our hearts so we may enjoy simplicity. Our quest in living a simple life is not a simple process at all. God in His grace makes the subtraction process both humorous and hurtful. Somehow the humor makes us bear the hurt and learn the lessons. So I ask you what are the things, people, relationships , opportunities that God is obviously deducting from your cluttered heart ? Well, by faith see God's hand and embrace God's purpose. Believe me though the process is painful the relief of being unloaded with many heavy things ( we put ourselves) is beyond compare. Go through it and don't interfere with God, and see that simplicity is something your guts can't do but His grace can. Pray for Pastor Bobby as he will be leading the team to help the victims of typhoon Pablo. He will focus on this for the next three months. For Pastor David who is in Baguio to visit his family. For Rev. Judy Leones to handle the weekly clinic at the welfare center. And the rest of us who will be doing various ministries this week . Pray for Dr. Dey Brato as he oversee the building project and with him the various teams. As we cross our Jordan let us remember we need God more today that yesterday. Together with the psalmist I say in my heart .... " I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of The Lord" Psalm 122:1a Joyfully let us surrender to God and see that His subtraction is paving the way to a simple life by faith. Respectfully, Rev. Arnel C. Tan