An unordinary church service

First church service without xiao hui around, it was destined to and turned out to be an unordinary service to me, as expected. But beyond my expectation, this service was turned to an extraordinary service by Ps. A. R Bernard's presence and preaching. Thank God for that.

A newly designated church advisory committee lead by Ps. Bernard and Phil. Pringle was announced at the beginning of the service, which was greeted by well expected long time applause. To me, this isn't something surprising as changes and opportunities always come along with crisis, and I feel happy because Ps. Bernard is till now my favorite preacher.

Changes bring forth more changes.

Ps. Bernard is no longer a guest speaker of CHC, but now the chairman of its advisory committee, which labels him a member of the CHC family. This change was well shown in his very first sermon after his new title being officially acknowledged. From today onwards he is not preaching to some "other people" whom he could hardly lead to extra miles without host's permission any more, but he is now preaching to "his own people" with full authority and commitment. The changes in his preaching tone, content and time commitment were well expected and observed, by me at least.

Thank God, Ps. Bernard is always so anointed to "magically" turn an ordinary or unordinary service into an extraordinary time of learning and growing. And praise God that he will be here once every two months, as part of his new role. 

Here I list his most impressive and incredible words of preaching which impacted me greatly today.

Based on Matt26:41

"Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Only "Watch and pray" was focused on and the entire sermon came out from these 3 words of Jesus Christ.

Main points of his preaching are listed as following:

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Pray to establish a consistent prayer life, as

#1. Prayer builds Focus / Concentration

#2. Prayer fosters Humility

#3. Prayer fosters Dependency in God

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If you want to know the secret of praying, Ps. Bernard said "The secret of praying is to pray." Well said!

Now it comes the most amazing part which I like very much and agree strongly.

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Watching and praying go together.

--Watch your THOUGHTS, because they lead to your WORDS;

--Watch your WORDS, because they lead to your ACTIONS;

--Watch your ACTIONS, because they lead to your HABITS;

--Watch your HABITS, because they lead to your CHARACTER;

--Watch your CHARACTER, because they lead to your DESTINY!

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Simply amazing, convincing and life-transforming.

My unordinary sunday service was thus transformed into an extraordinary service which I will remember for a long time. Thank Ps. Bernard for his wonderful words. All glory to God!