A Weekly Newsletter of The Church in Fremont |
December, 1st,
2002 |
Cross
River
37167 Fremont Blvd., Fremont, CA 94536 Tel: 510-7967313 Fax: 510-796735337437 Maple Street, Fremont, CA 94536 Tel (510)796-0148 http: //www.churchinfremont.org,
Email: churchinfremont@yahoo.com |
044 |
Shepherding
Saints
Genesis
48:15
"The God who has shepherded me all my life to this day"
John
21:15-17
"Feed My lambs. Shepherd My
Sheet. Feed My Sheep.
John
10:14 "I am the good Shepherd, and I know My
own, and My own know me
John
10:16 "And I have other sheep, which are not
of this fold; I must lead them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there
shall be one flock, one Shepherd.
Acts
20:28 "Take heed to yourselves and to all the
flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the
church of God, which He obtained through His own blood.
1Peter
5:2 "Shepherd the flock of God among, you
(To shepherd the flock of God requires suffering for the Body of Christ as
Christ suffered (Col 1:24). This will be rewarded with the unfading crown of
glory.
Col
1:24 "I now rejoice in my sufferings on your
behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of
Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church
As the time for Jacob to
die drew near, he gave his blessing to Joseph and Joseph’s sons. In his
blessing, he testified and said "The God who has shepherded me all my life
to this day". Our God is a Shepherding God. Jacob was 147 years old when
he died. During his entire life, Jacob experienced the shepherding of God, all
the time, including bad time and good time. He did not say that God only
shepherded him for good things. When situations occurred not according to his
wishing, he still experienced the shepherding of God. The shepherding by God
was constant throughout the entire life of Jacob.
In the New Testament,
our Lord Jesus is "good Shepherd" (John 10:11,14). He says "I
know My own, and My own know me." There is a mutual recognition and
relationship between the Shepherd and His flock. Furthermore, "the good
Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." As a man, Lord Jesus laid down
His soul life and His human life to accomplish redemption for His sheep so that
they may share His divine life, an eternal life. By this eternal life, His
sheep can be formed into one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd. The one
flock signifies the one church, the one Body of Christ, brought forth by the Lord’s
eternal, divine life, which He imparted into His members through His death. The
fold is Judaism, which is of letter and regulation, and the flock is the
church, which is of life and spirit. As the good Shepherd, He feeds His ship
with the divine life in this way and with this purpose. This was Lord’s earthly
ministry.
Under our Lord’s
heavenly ministry, He is continuing God’s shepherding work through His
apostles, disciples and believers (John 21: 15-17, Acts 20:28). In 1 Peter
5:2-3, it says "Shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing not under
compulsion but willingly, according to God; not by seeking gain through base
means but eagerly; nor as lording it over your allotments but by becoming patterns
of the flock." Shepherding should be according to God’s nature, desire, way
and glory, not according to man’s preference, interest and purpose. This is
against our human intuition. Whenever we do any shepherding work, it will
require us to pray and follow the lead of our Lord so that we do not go astray.
In all matter relating to shepherding, we need to stay in the fellowship with
other saints. Otherwise, we become "Blind guides (Mathew 23:16)
To shepherd the flock of
God also requires suffering for the Body of Christ as Christ suffered. In
Colossian 1:24 Apostle Paul says "I now rejoice in my sufferings on your
behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of
Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church." The afflictions of
Christ are of two categories: those for accomplishing redemption, which were
completed by Christ Himself, and those for the producing and building the
church, which need to be filled up by the apostles and the believers.
Through
these portions of Holy words and footnotes of the recovery version of Bible, it
shows us a clear path for shepherding. Our God is a Shepherding God. Whether we
feel it or not, He is shepherding us constantly, in good time or bad time, in
pleasure or sorrow. Lord Jesus is our first pattern in shepherding. He exhorted
us to feed His Lamb and shepherd His flock for the building of his church. To
feed the lambs is to nourish them with the riches of the inner life. It
requires us to enjoy the riches of the Lord’s divine life as our
life and life supply. This exhortation is based on divine love. Apostle Paul
and Peter showed us the way to practically carrying out the shepherding work.
We need to be willing, to be pattern, and according to God. The result is the
building up of the Body of Christ. (Bro. Chia-Ping Yu)
This was the second retreat that I have
attended so far, and it was just as good and refreshing as my first one! I
enjoyed my time immensely, and came home feeling like I gained something. This
retreat also helped me to realize what I was forgetting during school, to
choose Christ over everything else!
On the Friday before the meeting, I had
two huge tests and a bunch of quizzes. Needless to say, by the time school got
out, I was exhausted. As we were driving past all these flashing neon signs and
huge billboards, I was just reminded of how much the world has consumed me,
especially since school started. It seemed like an endless deluge of tests,
homework, and studying. As the signs of humanity thinned out, and trees started
appearing, I was relieved to have an entire weekend devoted to my enjoyment and
experience of Christ. What a great idea! (Jamie Yu)
The meetings, especially the first one,
were wonderful. It seemed all of us young people had boundless energy. Even
though many of us only slept a few hours in the seemingly makeshift Yurts, we
always had a tremendous source of inner strength. The songs seemed so much more
pleasant during these meetings, when everyone was singing heir heart out to he
Lord.
The sharings were also very memorable.
The messages were given on Genesis 1-2, and dealt mostly with God’s Creation, a
topic that was taught to us in the days of kindergarten Sunday School. However,
in Sunday School we were never shown the picture that God’s Creation Depicts.
We never saw how God’s creation was just an analogy to our growth in life; we
never saw how Adam and Eve were just a symbol of Christ and the Church; and we
never saw how the heavens was just a picture of the many saints shining today.
I was also touched by how practical these messages could be. I received a lot
of knowledge on how to stand up against the tide of the world, how Satan works
and what we can do to stop him, and how to become he proper Christian so that I
may be useful for God’s building.
Alliance Redwoods didn’t end after I
left. The messages, singing, and enjoyment I felt are all still a part of me,
and I hope that it will be something that will affect my life in a positive
way. I can truly say that Alliance Redwoods has changed me greatly, and will be
an experience I will never forget.(George Xu)
First of all
I’d like to start to say that this is one of the best conference retreats I’ve
been in that it was terrible, we slept in the Yurts that are at least 1 or
2 miles away from the conference.
Grounds up the
mountain and straight through the parking lot, the heater barely had a ½ inch
of a radius. But enough of my complaining about the living conditions,
what I’ve enjoyed during the time up. The mountain is the point about our
decisions towards God, between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil, that our choice should not be a promise but a decision, a
good example is this, in the Old Testament if you owe someone a lot and I
mean a lot, you either have the money to pay them back or serve 6 years as
a slave, after your 6 years of slavery you have the choice of freedom or
the choice of staying for a lifetime. If you pick choice no. 2 the master, will
have your ear pierced with an ice pick then that marks your stay for
lifetime. Like us we must choose between God and Satan, our choice should
be a zealous one, one full of Desire toServe, of course we are going to
choose God but is this the only decision there is? No, God gave us a
choice for us to choose, if today you can give yourself to the Lord then you
have made the Final choice which you shall carry for life (Eric Chang)