The worship service began with a dedication of the day's proceedings in the hands of the Lord by Pastor Tuanglang following which the worship team led us in praise and worship. It was then followed by an offertory prayer by Elder L.Ngulminthang.
Today being the first Sunday of 2018, Pastor prayed for the congregation as he usually does on every first and last Sundays of every month.
After the pastoral prayer, the message for the day was delivered by Pastor Tuanglang. The centre theme being "AND YOU WILL BE A BLESSING." We all want blessings- physical or spiritual. However, one must pay a huge price in order to receive one. So to be blessed for eternity, let us all turn around and take a step towards him.
The theme is taken from the passage Genesis 12:1-2 and supplemented by Hebrews 11:8,11,12; Galatians 3:29; Luke 9:23-24. The theme is based on the life of Abraham and how God blessed him abundantly. In order to do so he himself had to undergo through many difficult situations. Let us look at how he became a blessing.:
- Abraham was not known in the Bible till the 11th chapter of Genesis. It was in this chapter that he came into the limelight. Not much is known about his background and qualities except he was the eldest son of Terah- a descendant of Shem (one of the sons of Noah). He was the eldest followed by Nahor and Haran. Terah along with Abraham, his wife Sarah(childless during this time) and Lot(Haran's son) moved out from Ur and settled down in Haran until Terah died at the age of 205.
- After his father died, God called out to Abraham in Gen 12:1. He called out Abraham to leave his country, his people and even his father's household to an unknown land. Here, if we look at Abraham, there was nothing special about him to be called out. Unlike his ancestor Noah, who was known as a righteous blameless and one who walked faithfully with God, he did not possess any of those desirable traits except him being the eldest son. And his wife Sarah too was childless but God who looks at the heart and soul chose them because Abraham went out with blind faith with Sarah, Lot and all his belongings.
- Now Abraham and Lot were blessed abundantly and they both grew. They could no longer live peacefully amongst themselves. Therefore both had to part ways. Just as they parted ways, the Lord spoke to Abraham again and promised him something in Gen 13:14-16. Now in Gen 12 God had called his family alone but being the eldest son he felt responsible for Lot and so he took him along following his own conscience. He did not understand fully what God had planned for him, Lot had become a hindrance for him and so when they parted ways, God gave him what he was promised.
- It had been 11 years already since the promise of a son, so Sarah grew impatient and got distracted. She asked Abraham to sleep with ther servant Hagar to start a family with her. Without hesitating he obeyed her and went and slept with Hagar. Since it was not part of God's plan, Hagar started to despise her when she became pregnant. Sarah felt mistreated. It was because of their impatience and wrong step that Israel has enemies surrounding her till date.
- At 100, Sarah finally bore Abraham a son and they named him Isaac. It was exactly 25 years from the day God promised him a son, that it was fulfilled. He was tested again and asked to give Isaac as a sacrifice for a burnt offering. However, God saw his faithfullness and Isaac was spared.
The day's message in a gist is that Abraham like us was not the very best choice to be called out yet when God called him out into the unknown; he went there with blind faith and was blesssed accordingly(Hebrews 11:8,9). But when they started to live on their own terms they started to face problems and difficulties. Hence obstructed from their blessings.
Likewise in our own lives when we leave behind the obstructions that are keeping us from our blessings, he will bless us immensely. We only need to have the same kind of blind faith and willingness to take a leap of faith towards the unknown. "Therefore we need to take up our cross daily and follow HIM. And we need to lose our lives in order to save it for eternity(Luke 9:23,24)." This way we all can be a blessing just like Abraham.
After an eye opening and challenging message, the service came to an end with the worship team leading the last song of the service and benedictory prayer by Elder T. Thianzakham.
