Just got back from the first night at Go 4th Conference. Bishop's message was very good I must say. Easy enough for young people to understand. Deep enough for the very old ones to appreciate and funny enough so that the youth don't fall asleep. But that aside, it was really an anointed message from God.
Know a person who can really calculate the cost of things right down to the tiniest of details. Not monetary cost, but cost in the whole sense of the word! And it drives me nuts sometimes. Well, it's good in the sense that you count your cost really well, but really horrid in the sense that it has getten to the point where it has developed into, "if the effort doesn't justify the expected result, then should give up the idea".
Sound familiar? "Aiyah... if these people are not going to be touched by what you do, then why do it?" or "It's just too much effort for a small result, let's just not do it."
Recently wanted to show a video at an evangelistic event, but was told by the person above that it wasn't worth the trouble so don't show. That was even after the video was already in my laptop, and all I really needed to do was to project it onto the screen. Was really hurt by what was said; and sadly, it was not the first time this person said those kind of things or displayed that kind of attitude.
Bishop's sermon was on the Women at the Well. But instead of focusing on the things which happened, he spoke on the aftermath, that is when the women left, the disciples return and the whole Samaritan town was brought out of their homes and went to see Jesus.
I realised that Jesus went way out just for that one women. The disciples had gone into town, and the women had come from the town. Logically, they would have met! But the disciples had not done anything, they were on a mission... to buy food! But Jesus asked for a drink (which He may not have received in the end!) and instead offered the women a chance at eternal life! Which the women took!
We often forget about the last part of this story, that is, this women went back to town. Remember, this was in the middle of the desert and at around noontime and she was more or less a condemned women shunned by the rest of her community. BUT, she went back, and brough the whole town out! Can you imagine the kind of change that must have been brought out by just a meeting with the Messiah? Read on... the town invites Jesus to stay with them for 2 days, and as a result many believe!
What if Jesus decided to be like the disciples and not take an effort in reaching out to this women? I don't know...
When I first did the "Global Village" video, I had no idea why I did it. I just happened to see something like this done at a conference I attended. And I completely plagiarised the idea. The video took a huge effort, took me about 3 days to complete and what few people don't know is that I actually had to do it twice. The first cut was shown at GAP Camp, and the final cut was shown at Jubilee; the Jubilee version had about 2 more minutes of footage. (I had erased the source file, so I had to start from scratch for the Jubilee version.)
Why did I do the Global Village video? I really have no clue; I just felt like doing it. I certainly could have just not bothered and not continue with it; but I just went on. And I certainly did not know what kind of impact it would have on people. Since then, the video has been shown countless times at YM and at church level, WIN. But more than that, it has gone beyond the walls of PMC, I believe it was shown to some students at Coral Sec and as well to the Crusaders at NTU. It was also shown to a small audience within VCF. And it was almost shown at ONE camp. Till today, I am still amazed the impact its making all the over the place. I certainly did not think it would have gone that far; my only intention was to challenge the campers at GAP.
But now I realise, that sometimes, we really need to go way out to win the world for Christ. Just the same way He reached out people while He walked the earth. He could reach out to plenty by performing miracles to feed 5000. Or He could just change the heart of a condemn and sinful women by a simple request for a drink of water.
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. - Luke 15:10
A life won for eternity cannot be quantified by any means. It is priceless!
So, no matter how big the cost and how small the result, if it is for the sake of advancing the Gospel to the world, it is worth the cost!
The CD-table certainly did not take off well during the camp. And there are plenty of extra stickers. But I am not going to surrender and say that this "experiment" has failed. The extra leftover stickers will be made available for sale this Sunday; so will the CDs be available for sale at the prices they were going for at camp.
