Heartbeat...Great is our REWARD
Great has been our reward over these past 5.75 years.
We can say with the Psalmist (115:1)
‘Not us, Oh God, not us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness’
Heartbeat, you have rewarded us when you said, ‘please forgive me’ and then you tried to live differently- like the time you stopped giving attitude and showed us grace and kindness; sent us ‘smses’; emails and shook our hand a little longer.
You rewarded us when you stopped declining our invitation to share a God story…when you said ‘yes’ and got up full of confidence in God and spoke about your struggles and successes to your peers and testified that God was ‘in it all’!
You rewarded us when you brought your friends to Heartbeat service or an outing and spoke about your faith to your friends and family members… To prayer with you for your family members and friends has been our reward. To see you run in with the fantastic news that ‘they’ve accepted Christ’...was our reward. Our hearts rejoiced when we saw you rejoicing with thousands of heavenly angels.
You rewarded us when you spent big with your Ang Bao money and savings on tithing and God stuff. To see you take great care and energy to speak, dance and sing about your faith in other countries, this has been our reward.
Our reward has been a chance to talk about study, relationships, school, family and careers…We were rewarded when we could strip back the pressures and expectations of life and go heart to heart, that was our reward.
Seeing and hearing a bit of God’s big dream for your relationship with Him has been our reward. To see your face when you discover how all of your life is weaved into all of His life and plans…the chance to affirm God’s love is ‘4’ YOU and affirm the ‘impossible’ things He wants to do through your life, wherever He calls you, this has been our reward.
To teach His word Sunday after Sunday has been our reward. The ‘fact’ that you remembered the ‘good’ ones and forgot the ‘bad’ ones…has been my reward. Pastor Dan told me ‘youth are good to preach to because they are gracious with the ‘bad’ ones and respond to the ‘good’ ones’. It is true. To hear you worship and to see you pray Sunday after Sunday, even after tough and testing times at school and home, this has been our reward.
Our reward has been the chance to talk to you about family relationships, friendships and BGR. To talk and think about these vital topics Biblically has brought us great reward. It also gave Cecilia and I a chance to ponder over our teen years and discover where we could have made better choices in our relationships.
To walk with some of you through broken relationships; wrong decisions; the passing of loved ones, the illness or suicide of your best friend…these experiences are our rewards because we’ve seen many of you discover God’s greater love, God’s holding love. But through these dark, and at times, signless paths, some of your discovered a more pure love for each other and a deeper appreciation for life and its fragility.
Sometimes your relationships have been flourishing with God and each other…and other times they’ve been a big mess. There were days when your family was collapsing around you and you became the Rock for them- the one who carried on the hope for the weaker ones…To see that has been our reward.
‘Not us, Oh God, not us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness’ (Ps 115:1)
We thank God for you and for the meaningful life He has given us serving Him and you in this bustling Asian Metropolis. Our leaving prayer for you was ‘God please bring the people with the right gifting, grace and leadership ability to take Hbeat further and deeper to know you and make you known’.
God has shown His love and faithfulness again. Pastor Joshua, Diana and the Core Team, together with the wider leadership in Heartbeat and SJSM, are God’s appointed servants over you for the next season of your lives. We can see that the gifting is right, the wisdom and love are abundant and fresh.
Enthused
Dierdentribe
Jan ‘07
Great has been our reward over these past 5.75 years.
We can say with the Psalmist (115:1)
‘Not us, Oh God, not us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness’
Heartbeat, you have rewarded us when you said, ‘please forgive me’ and then you tried to live differently- like the time you stopped giving attitude and showed us grace and kindness; sent us ‘smses’; emails and shook our hand a little longer.
You rewarded us when you stopped declining our invitation to share a God story…when you said ‘yes’ and got up full of confidence in God and spoke about your struggles and successes to your peers and testified that God was ‘in it all’!
You rewarded us when you brought your friends to Heartbeat service or an outing and spoke about your faith to your friends and family members… To prayer with you for your family members and friends has been our reward. To see you run in with the fantastic news that ‘they’ve accepted Christ’...was our reward. Our hearts rejoiced when we saw you rejoicing with thousands of heavenly angels.
You rewarded us when you spent big with your Ang Bao money and savings on tithing and God stuff. To see you take great care and energy to speak, dance and sing about your faith in other countries, this has been our reward.
Our reward has been a chance to talk about study, relationships, school, family and careers…We were rewarded when we could strip back the pressures and expectations of life and go heart to heart, that was our reward.
Seeing and hearing a bit of God’s big dream for your relationship with Him has been our reward. To see your face when you discover how all of your life is weaved into all of His life and plans…the chance to affirm God’s love is ‘4’ YOU and affirm the ‘impossible’ things He wants to do through your life, wherever He calls you, this has been our reward.
To teach His word Sunday after Sunday has been our reward. The ‘fact’ that you remembered the ‘good’ ones and forgot the ‘bad’ ones…has been my reward. Pastor Dan told me ‘youth are good to preach to because they are gracious with the ‘bad’ ones and respond to the ‘good’ ones’. It is true. To hear you worship and to see you pray Sunday after Sunday, even after tough and testing times at school and home, this has been our reward.
Our reward has been the chance to talk to you about family relationships, friendships and BGR. To talk and think about these vital topics Biblically has brought us great reward. It also gave Cecilia and I a chance to ponder over our teen years and discover where we could have made better choices in our relationships.
To walk with some of you through broken relationships; wrong decisions; the passing of loved ones, the illness or suicide of your best friend…these experiences are our rewards because we’ve seen many of you discover God’s greater love, God’s holding love. But through these dark, and at times, signless paths, some of your discovered a more pure love for each other and a deeper appreciation for life and its fragility.
Sometimes your relationships have been flourishing with God and each other…and other times they’ve been a big mess. There were days when your family was collapsing around you and you became the Rock for them- the one who carried on the hope for the weaker ones…To see that has been our reward.
‘Not us, Oh God, not us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness’ (Ps 115:1)
We thank God for you and for the meaningful life He has given us serving Him and you in this bustling Asian Metropolis. Our leaving prayer for you was ‘God please bring the people with the right gifting, grace and leadership ability to take Hbeat further and deeper to know you and make you known’.
God has shown His love and faithfulness again. Pastor Joshua, Diana and the Core Team, together with the wider leadership in Heartbeat and SJSM, are God’s appointed servants over you for the next season of your lives. We can see that the gifting is right, the wisdom and love are abundant and fresh.
Enthused
Dierdentribe
Jan ‘07
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