John Fellowship Book Club

View the spreadsheet here. Happy reading! :)

The Final Question of Jesus

Karen wrote:

Both Sidney and I have read this very short but insightful book called: The Final Question of Jesus: How You Can Live the Answer Today by Stowell, Joseph M. (Author).

This book initally explores the thelogy behind Jesus' question of Peter's actions when the Christ follower returned to his business of fishing, thereby, neglecting to become a fisher of men. Peter had left the "people" business of Christ. He was frusturated. Peter gave up. Fishing for immediate source of income and food for the stomach proved to be more important than contining God's only ministry of "people". Christ was hurt. Have we hurt Jesus by leaving people business?

This 90 page books also offers practical advice when caring of God's human creation. I would like to share the following with you.
1. You can't help everyone all the time.
2. Establish your priorites. There are people in your immediate circle whom you need to care for....in this suggested order: spouse/bf/gf/close friend, children and extended family, BIC SIC and church family, then people whom you interact on a daily basis such as your coworkers.
3. Step away when you're drained.
4. Beaware of your capacity to help. Some of us are holders (holding injured souls until a healer comes along), helpers, healers, or maybe all three.
5. Know that there are some people who will never be helped. Some people know that the only way to get attention and fell love is to have a problem. In that case, let God do the work.

If you want to borrow the book, let me know. Or buy it...=p

Blue like Jazz

For those who went to the AFC event, in their book recommendation, they had one called "Blue like Jazz". I saw a drama base on this book 2 years ago, this week when I read it, it hits me hard. God spoke to me through this book and I have to say this is the second book that changed my life other than the Bible.

The book is about the author's spiritual journey, I really like his writing because even I'm a slow reader I finished the book in 4 days. He's got a sense of humor in his writing, it's like reading his journal and see his life being changed. The book mainly talks about sin, faith and love, its written in a way that's extremely relevant to us, because of the similar cultural background, and we have also experienced many of his doubt and sin towards God. I like he start with talking about sin — our sinful natural, our self addiction. Then it talks about God's love and we should response to His love; that is to love the people around us and the less fortunate. So that people would see God love in us.

I learn more about my purpose as a Christian, I start to see God's plan on me and JF and I found I'm different when I pray with the non-Christian basket ball players last night. Cos I truly believe God will change them when I pray with them & for them passionately with love.

I just think its a great and truly beautiful book, I was kind of in tears in the last chapter, I really hope that you will read it too.

- By Arnold

天路歷程漫畫版

Some of you might already heard Kenneth’s sharing/recommendation on the天路歷程漫畫版 last Friday’s fellowship. I finished reading it during the weekend. And, WOO! Must highly recommend this book! If you are afraid of the novel version (too many words), you should read this, and it will only take you 1-2 hours (or even less).

The main character went over many challenges during his trip to 天城. Some of the challenge he faced during the trip are the ones that we might face or already faced. And, by reading the story, it just makes me reflect on my belief and my trust in Him.

The book is up to borrow (to my knowledge, Carmen is next), feel free to borrow the book!

基督教聯合書展

Please click on the image or here for larger view of the poster

Joy of Reading

Sorry for the long waiting, below are some of the books that b&s shared during our fellowship program “Joy of Reading”:

* The Grace Awakening - Charles R.Swindoll

* Becoming a Contagious Christian - Bill Hybels & Mark Mittelberg

* Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag (art & photography)

* The Wealthy Barber – David Chilton (finance)

* 10個跑贏兔子的方法 - 施以諾

* 氣質，是最好的名牌 - 施以諾

If you want to know more about the “urgent-important” matrix that Alan Yu talked about during the time management workshop, you can check the below book out:

* The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Steven Covey (time management)

NOTE: If there is a book (any types) that you would like to share with all b&s, feel free to send it to me, I’d love to post them for you (not only the book name and the author, your sharing on the book is also welcome). ^_^

信心就是…

These days, keep praying and asking God to help me to have more faith in Him. A verse comes to my mind – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

Read a book called “信心就是…” published by China Sunday School Association. A book with 110 short verses to describe Faith. Very interesting. And, I pick 9 of them to share with you guys:

(1) 信心就是不看自己,只看全能的神。

(2) 信心不是信靠信心本身, 而是信靠聖經的事實 - 基督死亡的事實, 和復活的事實。

(3) 信心就是停止憂慮,把未來交託給掌管一切的神。

(4) 信心就是相信神的恩典夠我用。

(5) 信心就是最猛烈的試煉下, 最可怕的壓力下, 你仍確信神的同在。

(6) 信心就是祈禱之後, 完全相信, 用讚美和感謝去等待神的答案。

(7) 信心就是一無憂慮，凡事藉著禱告，祈求，和感謝，把所要的告訴神。

(8) 信心就是為那些尚未成就的事情感謝神。

(9) 信心就是將郵件丟進郵箱後, 就任憑它去。真正的信心就是這樣, 把事情交給神之後, 就讓它去了,神必成全。

靈命高

[My Utmost for His Highest] Faith— Not Emotion

If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to "walk by faith."

"We walk by faith, not by sight" — 2 Corinthians 5:7

Numbers

前幾日係 My Utmost For His Highest 睇到有個 Entry 寫得很好﹐對我有很大的提醒。
我想同你地分享: April 24th - The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success

有些時候我們會以為多人接受福音就ok﹐多人決志就好﹐而咁就算數。
但是我們會忘記去使萬民作祂的門徒。 It's not a simple numbers game.

不是一個人的。

Some food for thought from 'Becoming',

不錯，對你來說，可能已經很好了。但對那位司琴呢？有沒有想過他因此而要承受的壓力？有沒有想過他並不如你所感覺的「很好」？有沒有想過他因為當場要面對一首他從來沒有唱過的歌，彈不出來（或彈錯）的那種尷尬、羞愧和自責的感覺是多難受？

但你還是要顯明自己有理：「哎，我們根本沒有要求這樣完美！」

你不要求完美是你的問題，你就是沒有權要求別人不必獻上他們的最好給神！但你明白，當你明明深知自己若可以有一兩天練習，就已經可以很不同，但事情卻永不會這樣，因為別人沒有做好自己的本份，所以你就算想也沒有可能獻上叫自己滿意、無愧與神的事奉，那時你的感受是怎樣？

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

[From Karen]

Hey all brothers and sisters! For those who attended AFC's Jublization event, you would know that they recommended a few books for us to read. For those who haven't, HOW TO READ THE BIBLE FOR ALL ITS WORTH (Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart) is one of them. I have read the two prefaces, and part of the introduction (chapter one) to this book.

This is a very insightful and scholarly piece. When I started reading the prefaces, I immediately liked it due to the language. However, its not for everyone. The writing style is quite "academic", but yet the vocabulary is understandable. One should not try to read too much of it at one time....or else your mind would really get blogged down. The first chapter introduces the ideas of " then and there (exegesis)" and "here and now (hermeneuctics)". Haha...these latin terms are probably scaring you off already. Exegesis is the very first thing we should do with bible study: "to study the context and content of the bibical text". What was happening then? .....you get the picture.

So far I have found this book very interesting...and worthy for my future biblical studies.
On the other hand, I wonder if this book will give reducant information to those who have beens studying the bible for many years.

take care...more to come to come as I march on into the rest of this book...