October 13, 2017 marks a memorable event being one of the members of SingIes for Christ by giving my time fully to the Lord by understanding the questions, why I was called and why am I here for? We, the new members in this community, were invited to attend the Covenant Orientation Weekend for this will be the moment I can surely answer the questions I have in my mind. The day was filled with joy and excitement hearing seven inspiring talks from different speakers who also gave their time, talent and treasure who served as our inspiration of how blissful they are serving and living their life faithfully to the Lord.
Talk 1: Our Covenant and the Mission and Vision
It was explained and made us understand the deeper meaning of what Covenant is all about. Covenant is a solemn lifetime or long-term agreement of not just between two equal parties, but between a greater or more powerful person. Being in SFC and Christians as a whole who chose to follow the Lord and responded to His word, we commit ourselves to God by living our life in righteousness and holiness, that we should always remember, we don’t own our body. God created us in His own image and likeness, therefore, we are to honor God with our bodies for this is the temple of the Holy Spirit by protecting it from anything that can destroy and ruin it. Hence, we have to grow and deepen our relationship with him. Our vision “Every single man and woman all over the world experiencing Christ” ~ it helps us understand that we, the single men and women, believe that the world can be united in Christ through serving our God, knowing Him more, bringing people back to Him. Thus, we may have a continuous experience with Him which will lead to transformation by touching and influencing people we interact with. Our Mission “Building the Church of the Home and Building the Church of the Poor” ~ as we are one of the instruments of God, we are committed to be good and faithful members of the church by bringing more people back to the Lord and we lead in creating a family atmosphere filled with love, trust and faithfulness. Also, we are always of service to the poor by helping, loving and providing their needs. Let us not forget as well, we are to live our lives in loving service to God and to one another, for this is the greatest commandment from our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is to love Our God and love our neighbors as well.
Talk 2: Prayer, Scripture and Sacraments
Prayer is the only way we can talk and communicate with God. Prayer allows us to worship and glorify the Lord. It also allows us to confess our sins, if we will ask a genuine repentance from him, this will be given. Moreover, prayer gives us the opportunity to offer our requests to God. God is so personal, He loves us and He wants us to feel His holy presence and to be with us through prayer. Also, prayer is the best gift that we receive from our heavenly Father, it teaches us to be faithful in Him that we allow Him to take control of everything, in Him nothing is impossible, and everything that you have asked from Him will be given if we seek and ask for it. There is nothing more rewarding and fulfilling knowing that we get to know Him more and remind us that we are not in control of everything, but God is, therefore, we need to humble ourselves before God and learn to surrender everything and let Him to take control of our lives and have faith in all His glory, for God loves us and He prepared a wonderful plan for our life.
Talk 3: Strengthening Family Life
What is Family? If we go back in the context of human society a family is defined as a group of people affiliated by birth, marriage or other relationship. This may consist of a mother, father, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters or anyone related by blood is called a family. And also, we define a family as the basic unit of society. However, we, as Christians, believe that a family is not an institution designed by man, but it was created by God for the benefit of man, and man has given stewardship over it. The husband and wife are responsible for holding a family together and protecting it for a lifetime. The husband is required to love his wife as Christ loved the church and a wife should respect her husband and willingly submit to her husband’s leadership in the family because the woman was given to man for the purpose of being her husband’s helper. Hence, the husband should be the one to lead the family and that leadership should begin in his own spiritual relationship with God, for he will be the one to bring his family to the Lord, and as a Father, it is his primary duty and responsibility to provide the needs of his family. On the other hand, the children have two primary responsibilities in the Christian Family, to obey their parents and honor them. Obeying parents is our responsibility as children until we reach adulthood but honoring them is our responsibility for a lifetime, because God has promised His blessings to those who honor their parents. As we speak, Christian Family is a family who committed their lives in service of the Lord and fulfilling God’s appointed roles in the family. If a family put God to be the center of their lives there will be peace and harmony in their home and it is everyone’s responsibility to keep it sacred and obey what God has taught us - “to love and respect and be faithful with one another.” Because God doesn’t want us just to build a family, but a CHRISTIAN FAMILY, God doesn’t want us just to build a house, but a HOME.
Talk 4: Our Christian Culture in CFC Singles for Christ
Culture is a sum total of attained and learned behavior patterns of people, regarded as expressing a traditional way of life. It is the sum total of what makes people of what they are; this includes people’s beliefs, values, social structures, customs and expressions. Through our own culture, this will make us one and will define and distinguish ourselves from the others. In Singles for Christ, our Christian beliefs and values are those held in common by all Orthodox Christians, we believe that Jesus is our Lord that God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, the resurrection, and crucifixion, and there is life after death. Thus, we are an evangelistic community that we bring Christ and His love to the ends of the world. We are also living in our philosophy that contains beliefs and ideals of SFC, which governs our Mission and Vision. In SFC, we express our Christian culture through Household, for this is the foundation and our support system to live a Christian life, this is where we find a family bonded by trust and love through Christ. And also, we are called to attend in every opportunity that we have in all teachings, assemblies and conferences religiously for this is our avenue to deepen our formation towards Christian life, this is where we experience a bigger SFC family beyond our household as well. We are one family with the Lord, we communicate with our God through our prayers, reading scripture by asking for His wisdom and guidance, and being faithful to Him and support all His work, we give not just our time and talents but also our treasures. We also shared the same values and that is to honor and respect our brothers and sisters in Christ, to be loyal and committed to one another and be careful of the words we speak to others, we discourage conflicts and work towards peace and understanding to one another instead. For we are the living proof that God is working within us, and He will continuously use us as His instrument to fulfill His promises.
Talk 5: Being a Christian in the Workplace
Personally, this talk was very timely for me. I am working in a company where I felt I was treated unfairly, I felt my hard work was not being recognized and people were being mistreated by those who are greedy of money and power. But I never lose my ground and entertain the idea of giving up, aside from the fact that I am afraid of taking the risk of losing a job and knowing that it is not the best time for me to look for a new one, I chose to stay, well I guess for me that would be a practical thing to do. We meet different people with different personalities and attitudes that will test our patience. It really made me realized that it is not easy being a Christian in the workplace, God will send these people to test us on how we are going to deal with this kind of people at work. As Christian, we are here to understand the message of the Lord. We are servants to obey our master, we may not slaves, but we are called to obey those who are in authority over us, even when they are harsh and cruel. This doesn’t mean that we allow them to abuse and mistreat us, but it is a clear message from God that we need to be good employee and strive to be Christian by spreading kindness and respect to one another. If we feel everything is unfair and chaotic, we should start asking help from the Lord by reading scriptures and praying to God on how we can improve ourselves and our situations. Ask God to open the eyes of our heart to help us see His purpose and plan for our life. And we should always remember God made us and He loves us. He has prepared the best for His children. Let us focus on His message not on our situation.
Talk 6: Financial Stewardship
The importance of money in human life is similar to the importance of food for the body. Just like you can't live even for a few days without food, you can't survive for long without money. If you have lots of money, you won't be facing basic problems of life like food, water, shelter or clothing. We value money same as how we value success, fame and wealth in our life. However, human as we are, we tend to get blinded by these. We tend to forget that everything that we have belongs to God, and we are just merely stewards of what belongs to Him. We are here to manage what has been entrusted to us wisely, unselfishly and in accordance with God’s plans. In CFC-Singles for Christ we were taught of the basic ways on how we use our finances in the Lord, through tithing, resource sharing and almsgiving. In these ways, we can give back what belongs to the Lord. We tithe, share and give so that there will be food in God’s house, a food that gives life to many. God is so generous; He provides the needs of His people abundantly by asking a small amount in return. Let’s not focus too much of the amount that we give back to the Lord, but focus on what we keep for ourselves. If we give, God will open the floodgates as God can never be outdone in generosity.
Talk 7: Loving and Serving the Poor
Christians are commanded to help one another but we are also called to help those who are less fortunate than we are. Be thankful if God has blessed us with all the things in life, but let us not forget that God used us to be His instruments to share the blessings that we are receiving from Him. God wants us to help the poor without any qualifications; He wanted us to help those who are in need no matter what. Sometimes, we often judge them for being poor, we tend to blame them for being lazy, making poor choices and not trying hard enough to improve their life. But, we need to remember, it is not a sin to be poor and it doesn’t make them less of a person and less valuable in the eyes of God. We should not treat them differently, criticize or humiliate them either, but we should love and reach our hands to help them instead. One great way to help is to immerse ourselves with them, reach out to them personally and give them the help they need. Sometimes it is also the greatest thing that we can do to help poor people is to uplift them through words of encouragement. Caring for them is one way of showing them that they are loved and valued. We are imperfect people. But God calls us to bring kindness in the world and that is to care for the poor, homeless, abused and helpless.
Hearing all of these made me realized that God wants us to have a deeper relationship with Him and we are reminded of who we are and what we have to offer to one another. We should serve Him with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. We should understand that our service to God should be motivated by our love to Him and our thoughts must be clean and pure centered with the Lord, and we should seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit with the help of prayers and reading scripture as we align our thoughts, words and actions in the will of God. Through this, we may find joy in serving Him!
And for all of this, may God be praised!
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