First Love

I call this research. XD

Talk about a storm of entries. I don't start work until June so I have a lot of time on my hands right now. I moved into the larger bedroom that overlooks the beach. It's really nice.

So I went to my old church today, ECC, which used to be in the HK Convention Center. They recently acquired their own place which is now renovated. This is the second time they held service there. I must say it's quite nice! They have a floor for formal worship and then the floor above is coffee shop style with informal seating. There's live worship and then the sermons are live to air (of course with a four second delay thanks to Janet Jackson). Towards the end when doing announcements the pastor says if baking is your spiritual gift, the church needs people to bake goodies as after-service refreshments. Err... can you even call that a spiritual gift??? I'm not even sure what constitutes as a spiritual gift anymore.

Yeah anyway this is my very first time listening to a sermon I actually learned something and was able to really stay awake during. Wow. I was so refreshed! Plus it was on Revelations; a book rarely touched due to its symbolic, abstract, futuristic nature.
Anyway I'm just gonna write down what I learned from the sermon because I really enjoyed it:

Revelations 2:1-7

Revelation 2
To the church in Ephesus
1"To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Background: Revelations 1 addresses what is perfect: Jesus Christ, ruler of all nations. From there on John addresses the problems within the seven churches: two are thriving, two are falling and three are somewhere inbetween. The pastor uses Van Gogh's Starry Night as an illustration of the dying church. I didn't even see this as an artist, but if you look at the landscape, he depicts the entire city lit up EXCEPT the church. I didn't notice that before but during the sermon I was like "akjenrakwrnw!" Anyway the point was to say that the dying church is a scary thing.

Focus: The church of Ephesus

Praise:
Imperfection seeking perfection. John praises the church for being able to discern what was truth and what was fake. Just as counterfeit goods can be spotted if one studies the real thing first, the church in Ephesus was able to separate those who gave themselves the title of an apostle from the true believers.

Problem:
4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

The church in Ephesus was so consumed with legalism and being right, they forgot to love.
Truth+knowledge+orthodoxy made them forget to be loving and to love God's people. Separation between knowing/seeking and loving.

Remedy/answer:
-5Remember from where you have fallen...: life before Christ, remembering how little meaning there was before God and what He has done since then.
-Repent: derived from military term which means to walk in other direction when recognizing error.
-Return: love can cover a multitude of sins "and do the deeds you did at first..."
Parallel verse from Ephesians 3:19
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

Yep nice, short, concise and to the point. I loved it. It's been a long while since I heard a good sermon that didn't just meander and deviate from the scripture. Oh so refreshing! :D
I'm wondering if I should even look at other churches now... cuz I really want to hear the rest of the series (seven in total for each church). Crap!
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So afterwards I followed my uncle who decided to have lunch with his brother-in-law and his wife. We bumped into this uncle who looked really familiar. Turns out he knows my parents becuase they used to go to RHCCC together but met up at this church in HK. And apparently I used to live one street below them and have been to their house for dinner. So we ended up all having lunch together. His son, 25 years of age, who studied art history and photography was quite an interesting guy: liked Tim Keller, had a sarcastic edge to his words and actually asked me if I knew who Audrey Kawasaki is. Wow that's the first time a guy ever asked me that and he understand what I mean when I say I think her work is part anime, part klimt, part surrealism, part realism. XD I loveee her work. Anyway. So besides having been to RHCCC, he went to St.Andrews in Aurora for a year plus he knows this girl called Jesse Chung, a photographer who did a lot of work in fashion and comfort women in korea, who is really close friends with one of my classmates in NY. I've never met her but my classmate just mentioned her a couple of times and for some odd reason, she just popped into my head when he mentioned her. Weird. I just got that small world feeling.
Anyway since he's a photography major, he's gonna take me camera shopping/touring/testing so I get a feel of which model's right for me. Now I really don't know what camera to get. :( Nikon's starting to edge Canon back out. ROAR. I probably end up not getting any kind of camera. lol.

We began talking about churches and I mentioned how much I enjoyed the sermon today. He gave me this face and I asked him why he looked so bleh about it. Apparently the pastor was starting to 'lay down the law and put his foot down'. I said I didn't mind it because lately I've been listening to a lot of sermons that didn't really have much of a clear point and just meandered.

Yeah interesting afternoon.
Main point: let me never forget my first love, Jesus Christ, who is my home, my friend and my God until the ends of the earth.

Funny joke made during sermon:
Pastor: There is no such thing as a perfect church because none of us are perfect. But if you do find a perfect church, it'll be imperfect once you join.

So dry!
Yeah although I was pretty hesitant about returning, I really like the sermons here and I'm continually refreshed by their simple prayers that reflect the church's devotion to God. They prayed that although they were blessed with a newly renovated building that all these would fade away etc. Plus they have volunteer sessions where they help out at an orphanage in China every Saturday. Very cool.
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