属灵功课

福财牧师要我分享过去3年在更新学习到的属灵功课。
我有3个属灵功课要分享。

我基本上是属于比较保守的基督徒。我坚决坚持圣经的权威。
我的神学观念有很大的程度是源自于信徒基础课程里的教导。
对我而言，信徒最重要的是读经，祷告，传福音。

信徒基础课程有重点提到敬拜赞美吗？
新约有什么地方提到教会一定要唱诗敬拜赞美吗？
所以敬拜赞美不是我信仰的重点。

但是，更新教会的第一个异象是：

“我们要成为一个敬拜的群体。”

有一次讲道甚至提到说：

“我们活着的意义就是要敬拜神！”

我在一本书看到一个英国的神学家 J.S. Whale 说：

“一个活着的教会，不是一群掌握着正确神学的信徒，而是一个充满敬拜赞美的教会！”

这些教导改变了我原本的观念。如果我只有正确的神学，但是没有活生生的属灵生命，属灵敬拜，我的信仰是不完全的。

第一个属灵功课：神喜悦我的敬拜赞美多过我的事奉。


三年前，当时我是小组长，但是从来都不出席祷告会。
区牧叫我出席祷告会，我没有出席。福财牧师问我为什么没有出席祷告会时，我不但没有出席，还挑战他，问他圣经里什么地方说教会一定要有祷告会，而且信徒一定要出席？新约不是说祷告时不要让别人知道，要躲起来吗？我想福财牧师当时一定很pek cek，他也不跟我多说，只是叫我去看教会历史。

后来神要我参与访韩，我看到了韩国教会的发展模式。我也开始读一本关于教会历史的书。

第二个属灵功课：教会的发展，不单单只是靠正确的神学和过往的模式，还要考虑教会的历史因素与时代的改变。圣经没有重点提到祷告会并不代表神不重视祷告会。我们的神是个活神，祂一直很有创意的在不同的时代背景使用不同的方式建立教会。

我参加访韩是因为神要我去。之前秀珠叫我去，我都说不可能，因为我老婆怀孕。

在一次的讲道，福财牧师突然提到以赛亚书30章18节：

“耶和华必然等候，要施恩给你们；
必然兴起，好怜悯你们。
因为耶和华是公平的神，凡等候他的都是有福的！”

圣灵突然触摸我，然后我的眼泪就不停的流。神跟我说话，祂说祂要翻转我的生命，祂说祂一直在等我预备好领受祂的祝福。我也清楚地听到神说要我参加访韩。聚会完后，我马上跟我老婆说：“神要我去韩国。”

当我顺服于神的旨意时，我就开始有很多的领受与得着。在事业上，我因为害怕，就一直不敢放胆的去追求我的梦想，不敢随便换工作。我的害怕其实是个小信的罪，因为我怀疑神的能力与供应。在一次的祷告会中，当神为我们争战时，神就把我多年来心中的这个害怕与枷锁打破了。

我在访韩学了韩国信徒的三个绝招：
1）让圣灵充满
2）不停的祷告
3）要有信心和正面的想法

这三个绝招改变了我的思想。工作上的问题不再使我害怕。那些困难的问题没有变简单，我的老板也没有变得很好相处；变的是我的里面，变的是我面对问题时的心态。

当我的心预备好时，恩典就临到，新的工作突然就出现。

第三个属灵功课：你的心预备好时，神自然会成就。

bye bye RCL

My last 5 days in RCL flew by very quickly. The experience is like what some say about your entire life flashing pass you in split second just before you die. Major events of the past 6 years just flash pass my mind and suddenly the last day came and become history.

There were no surprises, no dramas, no tough deliberations about attractive counter-offers, no release of tense emotions. In the end what the wise men said is proven:

"No one is indispensible, life goes on."

i have been pondering on this thing known as "betrayal", which many colleagues including my superiors around me seems to feel towards me. Have i betrayed anybody with my resignation?

It is interesting to note that nobody in my department ask me, "What are your ambitions? Is that your dream job? What are you looking for in a job?". The common logic seems to revolve around speculations such as:

• "you must have been given at least 30% increment to forego the year-end bonus."
• "you are offered a higher position right?"
• "there must be something wrong with RCL that you know but we don't know."
• "you cannot stand the work in RCL issit?"
• "you don't like your boss issit?"

Seems like nobody's first reaction is to feel happy for me that i might be moving on to a better job, or a job that makes me happier. The first reactions are leaned towards "betrayal" and "desertion", and what is going to happen to their agendas? At the end of the day, there is always the selfish side to everyone of us. In a capitalist and merits based corporate environment, every individual is very much responsible for his/her own decisions and results. i would like to quote my late brother-in-law who said:

"Loyalty is until the next paycheck."

Which in fact is really the basis of relationships at the workplace. Will you continue working at the same company if you miss a few paychecks? For the sake of great colleagues and superb bosses? i'm just trying to illustrate that work is just a means to an end. Therefore "betrayal" technically do not exist in professional workplace relationships. There will always be different priorities at different stages of our careers. A HR practitioner once shared with me the 3 stages of a typical career:

1. Fresh. Eager to learn as much as possible. Salary and opportunities to prove oneself is most important.
2. Mid career. Established with a comfortable salary and lifestyle. Job scope, benefits, working environment, colleagues, office politics, prospects become key considerations.
3. End career. Stability is most important.

For me, i'm at the mid career stage where the salary is no longer the key consideration (since i have a very simple lifestyle). Job scope and prospects become more important to me. There is never a best time to move, because there will always be outstanding issues. So when the right opportunity comes, i need to be responsible to myself and move on.

Just to set the record straight:

• my nett annual income next year will be lower than my nett annual income last year.
• i self demoted, my new position is no longer managerial.
• i no longer enjoy tangible benefits such as free parking and mobile phone claims.
• i probably need to spend additional $200 on petrol per month.
• i need to spend additional 30 mins commuting daily, adds up to about 11 hours per month.
• the job is tougher than before.

Yet, please be happy for me, because this is going to expose me to a whole new world and new challenges that i have been thirsting for. Furthermore i can now charge up Elephant Hill without any historical baggages...