Minas-1

The Parable of the Ten Minas

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained how the minas represents time. While it may seem that God gives us each different amounts of time in our life, this is not a quantitative measure of time, but a qualitative measure of time. In God’s eternity and love, He gives us all our own individual time and treats us in this time in the same way.

This treatment of time is that God gives us a responsibility, a purpose to use that time. Although God is almighty in His providence and sovereignty, taking responsibility for all things in our lives and for the Kingdom, we still have a responsibility in our time. It is to receive God’s purpose in our life joyfully with love because He is the loving God.

The final servant regarded God in a “hard” way, pessimistic, cynical, and lawful. The logical conclusion to this heart is due judgment. Rather, may we receive the time and responsibility we’ve been given by God joyfully. God will allow us to bear fruits and allow our lives glory.

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Gratia Monday Group Bible Study Overflows Grace

Gratia church offers group Bible study every Monday and regular Bible study students joined it on August 22, 2022. They studied Romans 3 and shared freely about the message after that. Some members asked questions like how we can define sin, and how we can explain grace to non-believers. It was very graceful to see how the attendees were strengthened by sharing their own testimony. We pray that God pours down abundant grace to all members throughout the week.

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Luke 18:9-14.

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the prayer of the Pharisee which tried to use outward actions to gain righteousness before God. However, we cannot gain peace by our own actions compared to others. It may temporarily ease us to compare ourselves to others, but even the richest and most powerful people have anxiety and lack of peace. This is because our peace only comes from God.

The prayer of tax collector had radical sincerity in it. We can compare this prayer to the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, who Jesus reached out to with radical love. A sincere person will pray to God with a sincere posture like the tax collector did. Jesus himself prayed in this way, with struggling sincerity at Gethsemane.

Whether it is the prayer of the Pharisee or tax collector, we find that we are all completely limited. Even in the heart of trying to be humble, we can be prideful at the same time. Therefore, it’s not as if we can resolve self-righteousness and pride on our own. We need the grace of God from above and that is accepting the love of Jesus on the cross.

May we have the faith in God’s love that is completely beyond us and be sincere in our relationship with Him.

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Next-Level-Faith

He Was Transfigured Before Them

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the meaning of the scene of Jesus being transfigured before the disciples. The context of the scene is Peter’s confession of Christ. This confession of Jesus Christ is something all believers go through and forms the basis for our faith. It changes our eternal destiny and gives us the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.

After Peter’s confession of Christ, the Lord took him up to a mountain where he was transfigured before the disciples. In this event, he was next to Moses and Elijah and Peter was seemingly happy and comfortable with this. He even offered to build a shelter for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. However, after the voice of God came down, Peter realized that Jesus was on a higher level than the other two and fell down trembling in holy fear.

In the same way, we can become comfortable with our faith in Jesus Christ after we confess he is our Lord and savior. However, the event of transfiguration needs to happen in our faith. We shouldn’t be satisfied with our faith and our faith needs to take the next step and we must open our eyes even more to the Lord. His Word must burn in our hearts and we to know his calling for all of us, including the dream of the Kingdom of God.

We may be small like a mustard seed now, but the love of Jesus has the power to transform us. Also, Gratia Church may be small right now, but we must live truly like the early church and God has the power to change transform us into a beautiful church in His glory.

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