Dear Talent Beacon family,
God was clear about which song He wanted us to include in our worship set this week. While preparing for worship on Monday, He dropped this song in my heart:
The next day, I met with a friend to worship and pray. When I asked if there was any song in particular she wanted to sing, she replied, ‘Do you know the song Gratitude?’ The following day, I also asked Dylan to pick a song for the set. He texted back, ‘idk maybe gratitude’. Don't you love it when God is crystal clear?
Lately, I have been learning the importance of Gratitude as a spiritual discipline. If we are not intentional in celebrating God's goodness, we may miss out on the joy He wants to give us. As we approach the midway mark of 2024, perhaps it is an appropriate time to look back at all that God has done in our midst. He has brought us so far. This year, we started our monthly 早晨点心 gatherings, Bill Johnson's The Way of Life and embarked on a social media project with the youth. In all these things, He sustains us and blesses the work of our hands.
I am also grateful for the many ways that God has showed up in our meetings: He inhabits the praises of His people. When we gather and sing to Him, His presence sits on us in such a powerful, manifest way. I have witnessed His healing touch. I have seen how He has given many of us breakthroughs by transforming our circumstances, but also how He has set us free from the prisons of our own minds by showing us that we hold the key. There is always something to be grateful for.
Most of all, I am grateful for how God’s love is so, so evident in our community.
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12)
Church, this is significant! According to this verse, our love for one another is evidence of the invisible God!
It brings to mind a verse from the gospel of John, which we are currently reading for Love Letters. Right before He was brought to the cross, Jesus gave His disciples a new command:
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
I am grateful to be walking alongside a community that is living out that verse. We love by opening our homes to one another, by cooking for hours in the kitchen in preparation for our gatherings, by offering a ride home to whoever needs it, by listening to and praying for one another. We share in one another’s joys, and bear one another’s burdens. We offer a safe space for our friends from Bukit Batok, and the students whom we journey with. May God continue to mark us with His love, so that the world will know we are His disciples!
Last night, RT1 reflected that though we may not have chosen one another as close friends in ordinary circumstances, we are still committed to journeying together because it is God who has picked us for one another. For us, loving one another means being intentional in knowing one another, and letting ourselves be known.
We sometimes take these acts of love for granted, and maybe even think of them as commonplace, but make no mistake - there is nothing ordinary about loving one another, for there is no love without God. God Himself empowers us to love one another and to love our community. It is such a blessing, and an inspiration to be part of a community that takes this command seriously. For that, I am grateful.
In His love,
Lycia
(on behalf of the leaders)
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