SYIP 16/17

Part 1- by Hyo Jin

- Today we went through a on "Conversations with God" where we learnt the 6 essentials in a conversation - situation, sender, recipient, medium, emotion and message. Pr Benita even went through various examples in the bible to illustrate these 6 essentials. Furthermore, we even reflected on a psalm so as to do likewise and construct our own psalm to God. Furthermore, through this talk, we also learnt that our conversations with God may not necessarily be limited to our QTs( though QT is encouraged in the Christian walk) but instead we can always have a conversation with God whenever we can.

Part 2 by Noel Tham

- Today was my first official day of internship after being away in London for the past two weeks. Even though I overslept and arrived late for the first talk by pr Benita, I was able to learn many things on the book discussion today. We had a book discussion on the topic: God is King

- 1) that God is king over his creation in Daniel 4:30 nebuchadnezzar says:" is not this the great Babylon that I have built as royal residence,by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? " Daniel 4:31 respond with" you will be driven away from your people and will love with the wild animals, you will eat grass like the cattle" This shows that God is the king over everything and all glory must be to him only and none other

- From the Westminster shorter catechism it says God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence. This again shows us that God has authority over all his creation

- 2) God is the king over every sphere of life we learnt that God loves his creation and is covenanted obliged to be very involved in the world. He governs our actions

- 3)God is the king over human salvation we learnt that God choses who he will save for his own glory. God knows who he has chosen and who has not. God has sent his son to die for us and grants us his holy spirit to turn our wills to God. Ultimately, God has ultimate control over everything and it is God's choice that we have salvation

大家好！我是学恩，来自长老会恩泽堂。我希望可以与大家分享我们今天的学习旅程。今天的两堂课都是在长老会恩泽堂举行。基甸传道首先与我们分享了创世记 3：15， “我又要叫你和女人彼此为仇；你的后裔和女人也彼此为仇。女人的后裔要伤你的头；你要伤他的脚跟。” 我们学习到，这一段经文不只是表面上上帝对人类的审判，这也是所谓的 "Proto-Evengelium" - 也就是第一份福音。这段经文虽然指向人与蛇的战争，但它更是传达更大的一份信息：那女人的后代 - 耶稣基督 - 必会反击。这段经文因此提醒我们上帝与使人犯罪的“蛇”之间的战争。同时，这段经文也给我们希望，因为上帝会通过耶稣基督给予我们胜过蛇的能力，让我们最终可以得胜。

基甸传道也向我们解释上帝的国度：

1）Confer a holy realm 赐下圣洁的国度

2）Unto a holy people 给圣洁的人

3）By a holy representative 借着圣洁的代表

我们也通过亚当，以色列，以及耶稣基督来探讨上帝与人的约以及祂即将赐给我们的应许之地。我们也学习到人经过的四大阶段：

Creation 创造--> Fall 堕落--> Redemption 救赎--> Glorification 得荣耀

最后的总结就是，上帝的国度是“已然未然”，“Already but not yet".

之后，我们就分享彼此对于个人教会专题项目 (Personal Ministry Project) 的一些想法，并对其给予建议。

吃完午饭后，我们回到教堂，由刘华德牧师为我们分享如何“开启民间信仰者的心怀”。牧师非常了解中华文化传统，但是由于时间的关系，他简单的与我们分享基督徒与中华文化之间的摩擦以及分别，希望我们能对中华传统文化产生兴趣，更深一层去分析如何把福音带入传统华社中。牧师首先提到传统华社对于基督教抗拒的原因，这包括双方都不够了解对方，以及历史事件等造成的偏见。牧师因此教导我们应该放下“西方”的大衣，更学习中华文化，才能更好的融入华人社群中。我们也学习到文化不仅停留在习俗的层面，更是有价值观，信仰，以及基础建设等因素。牧师也给我们介绍了中国的3大传统思想：儒、道、佛三家。他更是以龙的例子来让我们了解三家思想的不同。牧师也花了很多时间来回答我们对于这个可以的问题。