A word from heaven.

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Packet of Truths

They are what people remember.
They are the building blocks of teachings.
They are what give people a fresh breathe of life.
They are one of the most powerful tools to share the gospel in a nonthreatening and non intrusive manner.
They are powerful when used to correct or rebuke people in a way that is more likely to garner a response.

What am i talking about exactly? What are Packet of Truths? I think its easier to give a few examples before i dive into the characteristics.

Packet of Truth 1:

To me eternity is like shooting a cable through both horizons. All the way to the left and all the way to the right until you can't see the end of the cables. Our life now is a like a scratch on the cable. It is that short and soon it will be over. To some people, this scratch is all they have. So they hug on the the scratch, they kiss the scratch, they try to grab whatever they can to be successful in this scratch. Some even try to elongate the scratch. But is that all life is for?

Packet of Truth 2:

The bible says that sin is lawlessness. We are not commanded not to sin cause it is impossible. We are all sinners but what exactly are we called to be with regard to sin? When the bible refer to sin as lawlessness, it refers to willfully going in a sin with no regard to what is right and wrong, the consequences, the love of God, the will being of others. That is what it means by lawlessness. The whole concept of grace is that when we do something wrong, we admit it, we repent, we bear the consequences of the sin, and we move on and grow out of it. We allow ourselves to be dealt with in regard to the systems and parameters set by the church and society to protect the well being of everyone and to allow us to grow and learn from our mistakes.

Packet of Truth 3:

I always ask myself how can God love everyone to the max. When both of us pray at the same time, who does God love more, and who does he listen to. The jealous self in me would want to have God give me undivided attention and not be listening to many other Christians at the same time. However, the revelation that i got out of this is that there is a part of God's heart reserved just for you. Just like there is a part reserved just for me. What a privilege! Whenever we pray, that part of God's heart is excited. That part of God's heart yearns to relate with me. It excites God when i pray. If i don't, that part of God's heart is waiting for me to go back to God! Things happen when we pray! God is not like some far away God who is emotionally disengaged from us.

Here are some characteristics of Packet of Truths:

1) They make sense as stand alones.
2) They are self containing. (you do not have to give a background to have the packet of truths to make sense)
3) They normally address single issues only.
4) They may have their source from analogies, bible verses, stories, concepts and illustrations.
5) They do not address the issue of any particular party. (It is non intrusive) (E.g. in truth 3, we may help our sheep know look to God in prayer more but in a non offensive way. It does not seem like a correction.
6) They are a good bridge into a certain topic. It is normal for us to share a packet of truth that we learned recently.
7) They break the monotony of a dull teaching. If you're read the teaching of the word series, under lesson formulation, they are normally after the body portion and placed in the contextualization part.
8) They bring a fresh perspective to common topics like prayer and sin.

Good teachers of the word will always be able to make their lesson come to life with these packets of truths.

If you have not realised, what i have been blogging on this site have been essentially single packets of truths. I hope that by following the posts on this blog, you'll be able to build up your arsenal of packet of truths.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Christian Living 2

The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008