ok guess i should blog abit. Today is the Sabbath day and i just got back from cell group. It was a very enriching cell meeting because about 6-7 non-cell members came. I was very happy that this cell group is attracting such people. And we went through daniel's story about him standing up for his faith and why he didn't bow down to the image.(Daniel 3)
It's interesting that Daniel wasn't the only one who didn't bow down. I believe that God had planned to have 3 other friends to also support him and also all 4 of them took a stand for their faith. This is all about supporting one another in times of testing. Imagine Daniel being the only one, i guess the situation would be abit different because he would probably be under greater stress if he was not strong enough. So with the group support, they were even willing to die in the fiery furnace. And though that story has been told and retold, it is still a wonderful story of how we can stand firm and be bold to proclaim what we believe. In Mark 8:38, it says that "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” "
So i strongly believe wholeheartedly that whenever we have a chance, we just say what our principles are. If our friends notice we don't eat pork, don't just say "ya, i don't eat pork"..say something more to spur their interest and to get to know our faith too, something like "yes, i don't eat because of health reasons and because of what the bible says too. And also, it's not only pork i don 't eat but also seafood like prawns, crabs...". Whenever i boldly proclaim my principles, people would be very interested to know and it's a form of witnessing. So my friends, please don't be ashamed for what you believe in. Another incident i shared in my cell group was during army in pulau tekong, i was the only adventist there and so i had to carry a dummy rifle. As the bible says, we shouldn't kill and so we don't believe in killing people. That's why i had to carry the dummy rifle anyway. So obviously my friends will ask me why i was so special. I find that by telling all that they wanted to know and more, i could feel the acceptance from them. So of course the whole platoon noticed and understood why i believed what i believed. Then at the end of the course, we had a 20km route march where many platoons did it together.(more than 500 soldiers)..and i was the only guy carrying a blue dummy rifle. So because i had told my platoon mates about my believe and they understood it, i found that i had the support and it didn't make me feel that weird to be the odd-one-out. Therefore, i thank God for the opportunities he places for us to tell people our faith so that not only will they know more about christ, but maybe next time it will be easier for you too.
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