The recent students conference in Wales overall revived my spirit to a great extent. The Gospel of John starts making sense for me. In a way, we are all the nine cases recorded in John: we are moral, immoral, dying, impotent, thirsty, hungry, bondaged in sin, blind in religion, and ultimately we are dead. I am extremely similar to Nicodemus – this is why I shared something after the message. The fact that John put him as the first case illustrates the importance of regeneration. Sometimes we think we are really good people. However the serpertine nature lurks in us (John 3:14-18). You may be sparklingly loving externally but probably – like in my case – situations will show you that humanity is always “half shadow and half light”. Human beings are intertwined entities of “the evil ghost” and “the shiny light”.
Therefore we are all impotent. What we need is not a religion – not even something like Christianity to revive us! This is a serious issue because seeking the Scripture without Christ is a religion! This is what Jesus said to the religious people, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). This alarms me greatly because I have been on the verge of giving up Christianity for some time. Why? It is mainly because I started losing sight of Christ in my routine church practise. It is so dry inside. I remember one brother shared in his prophesying that he was brought up in a church life but actually it was not until he touched the Lord personally that he started seeing the truth again. We all need to guard ourselves against religion – even amongst ourselves. We are being recovered by the Lord – Without Him, we cannot do anything!
The message which mentioned the “dead people walking” also striked me deeply. Without God dwelling inside, our spirits are dead. Physically, we are still walking. This is the reason why in London, the busy centre of the UK, you see so many people occupy themselves with different things. When you see the throngs of people, you actually see “dead people walking”. The more tattoos a person gets, the more thirsty he is. Don’t be scared of people like this – they are thirsty. What they really need is Christ Jesus!
There are still a great many things I did not yet digest from what I enjoyed in the conference, but what I want to share is that a Christian life is a truly shining life that my heart desires! When we are close to the Lord and open our hearts to Him, He shall speak to us using the “Rhema” words. When we are abiding in Him and His words, He becomes a Real Person, a gentle Shepherd, a faithful and almighty Brother, who lives in us, makes home in our hearts and strengthens us each single moment.
I really have enjoyed this hymn. It is my favourite:
Christ May Make His Home My Heart
Father God, forgive me if I groan,
For so long I’ve been on a plateau
Now with tears, I bow my knees and pray
By your Spirit make my spirit strong today.I myself was losing heart each day;
Then the Lord brought some saints my own way;
I alone could not Thee apprehend
But with all the saints You now my joy have beenAll these years I’ve come the church to know,
Yet O Lord, there’re thingsI can’t let go;
Yet within me there is an “Amen”;
O now joy I never knew in me’s flowing.
Yes, inside of us, there is always an”Amen”. Amen [sharing by sister Chen C. from her top enjoyment in the recent Spring 2011 College Age Conference in Wales]
amen
amen