Sunday, 16th November 2008Today's cheeky title must have caught your attention...
.. but I won't be talking about the birds and the bees lah. After all, this is supposed to be a "Christian" blog, right?
Then again, what am I saying? The Holy Scriptures makes reference to it many times. Just the other day, I was reading the passage about how Jacob had sexual relations with his newly-wedded bride, only to realise the morning after that it was not Rachel, but Leah that he did it with...
Gen 29:21-25 (The Message)
21-24 Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife; I've completed what we agreed I'd do. I'm ready to consummate my marriage." Laban invited everyone around and threw a big feast. At evening, though, he got his daughter Leah and brought her to the marriage bed, and Jacob slept with her. (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.)
25 Morning came: There was Leah in the marriage bed! It must have been quite a virginal experience for Jacob ;-)
But I am digressing here. Let's talk about my virginal experience.
Sometime in September of last year, my wife and I had dinner with Joshua Lye and his wife Florence. (Joshua is the author of
Walking on Water and maintains a blog called
Daily Rhema).
At that time, I had just been asked to step down from church leadership (as a cell leader as well as Honorary Treasurer) and was sharing my journey with Joshua. I told him that although the senior pastor of my church and I disagreed about the grace gospel and the completeness of Christ's finished work, we at least agreed on one area -- that PLMC should be a "cell church" and not merely a "church with cells".
Well, Joshua then told me that there is a difference between a "law-based cell" and a "grace-based cell", and went on to elaborate on this. Back then, I could not see the difference, but with the benefit of hindsight, I do now.
Law-based cells operate by a set of "rules and regulations" such as having to multiply within 18 months, or having to have at least one open cell per quarter, or having to attend WIN once a month, etc. Members feel a sense of obligation to meet up because attendance is recorded and the CG leader has to submit a report. After some time, cell leaders feel burnt out and cell members just give up attending altogether.
How about grace-based cells then? Read on...
Last Sunday, we were at Eng Wah cinema and given a handout of the activities taking place in the months of November and December 2008. I was looking at the handout and noticed that the nearest Care Group met at Wolskel Road, just about 5 minutes' drive from our home.
So, my wife and I decided to attend it on Tuesday night. We started with a time of worship, and this was then followed by the partaking of the Lord's Supper. According to the CG leader, Chong Sun, this is practiced in all Care Groups.
We then had a round of introduction (I suppose this was for the sake of my wife and me, since the others already knew one another). The hostess has been a NewCre member since 1991, while the others have been in NewCre from between 2 years and 15 years.
What was comforting was that every single one of them shared a similar journey -- they were all from some other traditional church before -- Catholic, AG, Anglican, Methodist -- and were being taught legalism in one form of another. God revealed to them the grace gospel along the way, and they have now settled in NewCre.
When it came to our turn to share, we told them that we only started attending NewCre regularly since August 2008, but have been listening to Ps Prince's sermons since August 2005, thanks to an ex-colleague who left his sermons in the office for others to borrow.
We did not reveal which exact Methodist church we are from (but Chong Sun guessed correctly later when I spoke with him during the makan fellowship, since Wolskel Road is also about 5 minutes' drive from PLMC).
We also shared with them our current dilemma about having to drop off our kids at PLMC's Sunday School and then going to NewCre after doing so, to which one fellow sister who also used to be from a traditional church encouraged us by saying that while it is ideal for the entire family to worship in the same church, it should be in God's perfect timing and not ours.
In summary, we really felt at home even though everyone around us were total strangers to us. We also could sense that people came not out of a sense of duty, but more because they really wanted to meet up to encourage one another. The time of sharing and testimony was also not awkward in any way: even challenging situations that a person was going through were shared in the light of Christ's finished work, with the faith and assurance that God will see them through, so everyone else actually felt edified and uplifted by it!
As my wife and I left the meeting at about 10:30pm, I reflected upon what Joshua had told me last year about the difference between a "law-based" CG and a "grace-based" CG, and I must say that he is absolutely right.
Just like how Madonna had sung that she felt "like a virgin" (even though she was not one), I also felt like a virgin last Tuesday, being touched by God for the very first time, even though I have been attending cell meetings for more than 4 years already.
Needless to say, I had a great virginal grace-based CG experience and you can be sure my wife and I will be going back for more. Hallelujah and Praise the LORD indeed!
