My family and I visited City Discipleship Presbyterian Church (CDPC) Puchong this morning. I had planned to pay a visit for some time now and we finally did. It is a very pleasant family church.
We liked it that the kids join in the worship and later break off to their Sunday School classes before the sermon starts. We liked it that the service begins early at 9:30am. We liked it that we do not need to worry about the carpark and had some time to fellowship with one another after service. We liked it that the people there were so warm and inclusive. We liked it that it is so near our home.
The message by the pastor was from John 15:1-17 on Jesus being the vine and the disciples the branches. He did not preach in point form but I did pick up these three major strands:
1. We are commanded to remain in Jesus. Remaining in him means not to leave or stray away. Remaining in Christ means remaining in his Word. The focus on Jesus is also a focus on his revelation through the Word
2. If you don't remain in him, you will be cut, thrown away and burned. And if we do remain in him, there will be pruning and it may be painful. I love his usage of the illustration of Euthace in CS Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawntreader to explain the pruning process. Euthace was the most selfish of all boys and he had been converted into a dragon because of his disobedience.
Part 3 from The Voyage of the Dawntreader:
“Then the lion said — but I don’t know if it spoke — You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know — if you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund.
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. . . .”
3. We are commanded to love one another, and to be fruitful. And when we are fruitful, glory goes to God who is the gardener (v.1). Pastor mentioned a jackfruit tree he once saw that had fruits on its entire trunk and said that is how we should be fruitful with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). He said he was sorry that he did not take a picture but I suppose it should look like this. And this is how evident our bearing of fruit should be: our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The lesson for us is how are we to fulfil Jesus commandment to love one another. I have been reading a book published by The Voice of the Martyrs on martyrs in this contemporary times. It was not at all an easy read. It was heart breaking and I had been thinking on what I should be doing. I am praying about it. We must indeed love one another.
‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 (ESV)
pearlie
Photo source: dgmila
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