A Tuesday To Remember

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Originally uploaded by neonangel.

Since there was no bible study this week, me and HKGal took the chance to visit the interdenominational group I had met a couple of weeks back at SonicFest. FunkyArchitect had invited me to pop by the first time I had a chance.

This group is really a prime example of an emergent church - it's a motley collection of people of all types from all over the world : A Filipino Jamie Aditya (MTV VJ) lookalike youth pastor and his psychologist sister;
An American independent film-maker turned missionary to the Singaporean American schools; a Polish backpacker who just could not get enough of the group even though he was non-christian!;
Several 'starving' local film-makers, photographers and musicians;
etc.

Multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-denominational. Quite a interesting take on what the first churches must have looked like.

There must have been close to 30 people there that night. We started at 8pm and ended near 1am. It has been a really really long time since I worshipped, spoke and prayed this way - with a whole room, without any need for restraint, without any fear of people feeling uncomfortable.

That night was "Share Why You Are a Christian Night" and it was such a powerful collection of individual, spontaneous testimonies. As one room - half of which were complete strangers! - we wept and laughed together at the sharing of multiple stories from real life.

Why follow Christ indeed? Some said because He was Love. Some said because He made so much sense. Some said because He did NOT make sense - Grace is a totally ridiculous concept by human standards! Some said because He was just...too amazing to say no to.
Some simply fell in love with Him. Some literally had an Old Testament style miracle deliver them from their disbelief!

It was really encouraging to discover in all their disparate reasons for being a Christian, the common thread that God is a entity who reaches out to us in a myriad of ways, far beyond human understanding and human limitations.

I shared about what the TissueAunty incident taught me. I loved God simply because He is Right, the rightest right I knew. He is the God of Justice, the one who looks out for the weak and oppressed far better than any human ever could.

As I told the story, my words choked and I started to cry. I never realised how much Truth that encounter had cemented in me: I really wanted to see the day when His Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.

I used to be indifferent to those words but now those precious lines of the Lord's Prayer have become my greatest source of inspiration and hope. I never realised how much that particular aspect of the Truth meant to me until I shared it with the group.

I miss charismatic-style gatherings: That intimate gathering of people around you, all praying and praising with such conviction, force and unabashed joy that you could feel a piece of Heaven; The way they unashamedly grip your shoulder or clasp your hand or cradle your head as they prayed for you, conveying a hundred nuances of feeling the way only a human touch can convey;

It has been a long time since I had someone pray an encouragement over me with such conviction even before they knew i was in need or what I needed to be encouraged about. HKGal and I were definitely moved to tears many times at the open love of these perfect strangers.

I was grateful to see how uplifted and more convicted my own prayers for others became in such a setting - where other people's prayer literally put courage into your own praying tongue. Among a crowd like that, hearing prayers like that, you could not help but find a stronger voice for your petitions to God.

When we sang to God that night to close the day, I could not stop the Hallelujahs from spilling out.

This is a truly blessed group. God is doing some amazing things within their ministry.