Was Jesus really God?

Hi everyone, just a summary of what we did for CG this week. (I was really happy to see such a big group of you come for CG this week)

Sharing

Sharing was done by Amanda. And boy did she make us turn our Bibles... (: Amanda talked about what the Bible meant to her and how it is important for us all to go to the Bible in all the different stages of life - Whether we feel Happy, Sad, Worried, or Angry, the Bible will always have words of comfort for us. She also mentioned that sometimes in the train, she would just open the Bible and think about a verse from it. Maybe you guys should try that too, hm...

Worship

Patrizha led worship this week - She chose God will make away, inspired by something that really happened in school. Apparently she almost got into trouble her group into trouble by not submitting their work on time to the teacher. Thankfully, God really did make a way and she was given a chance by the teacher! Praise the Lord. (Let's also not forget the wonderful worship session led by Marcus last week. He did a very meaningful session about God reminding him through many repeated verses in the Bible to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...")

Next week, Ryan will be leading us in worship and David will be doing the sharing. I'm sure we all looking forward ;)

Prophecies of the coming saviour

For the benefit of those who didn't come, we discussed the many prophecies in the Old Testament that came true through Jesus Christ. Some of them include:
The Messiah being born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)
The Messiah being a descendant of King David (Luke 3:31)
The Messiah being born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1)
The Messiah entering Jerusalem while riding a donkey (Luke 19:35-37)
The Messiah being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15)
The Messiah being crucified for our sins (Luke 23:33)
The Messiah being resurrected (Acts 2:31).

Of course, there are a lot more prophecies that we haven't even mentioned! Scientists have calculated the probability of all the prophecies being fulfilled in 1 man to be 1 out of 10 to the power of 157. For those who study probability, these are CRAZY IMPOSSIBLE ODDS!!!

How did Jesus show that he was the son of God?
Jesus showed others that he was the son of God by referring to the Old Testament's prophecies about himself. (Luke 24:27)

Could the fulfillment of prophecies be a coincidence?
No. In his lifetime, Jesus not only fulfilled just 1 or 2 prophecies but more than 60 of them in the Old Testament! No coincidence could possibly come so close!

Could Jesus have intentionally tried to fulfill the prophecies?
No. If Jesus was really just an ordinary man trying to make himself fit into the prophecies, there were a lot of prophecies that were beyond his control - Being a descendant of David, the location of his birth, the way he died, the amount he was betrayed for, and the list goes on... In other words, it must have all been planned by God!

Could the prophecies have been written after they had happened?
No. The Old Testament (known as the Septuagint at the time) was translated around 150-200BC. That was around a 200 years before Jesus was born!!!

From Cowards to Heros

We discussed how Jesus' disciples used to be before they experienced Jesus resurrection. Peter denied Christ 3 times, Thomas wouldn't believe that Jesus resurrected until he could touch the nail prints in his hands, James wanted to call fire down unto a village because they rejected Jesus. These men were cowardly and sinful. Yet afterwards, they became heros, bravely preaching the gospel and willing to die for the word of Jesus to be spread. (Acts 5:40)

These man were beside Jesus and spent a lot of time with him. They used to be such weaklings but had such a drastic change in character. Had Jesus really died and not resurrected as Saviour of the world, would they have so bravely preached his gospel? No way! They would have been more depressed and defeated than ever, now that their master was dead!

Not only that, if they were spreading a lie about Jesus' resurrection, all the Romans had to do was bring Jesus' dead body out to prove them wrong! But more importantly, who would be willing to die for a lie? The only explanation for their sudden courage was that they had seen and believe - JESUS WAS ALIVE! From then on, their lives were changed forever.

Who do you believe Jesus is?

Jesus claimed to be the son of God, the saviour the Jews had been waiting for. (Mark 14:60) Some people believe that he was a wise man and a great moral teacher but not the son of God. However, these theory means that either Jesus was lying about himself or he really believed he was the son of God, making him a madman.

Jesus could not have been a liar because his life and his works spoke of his morality. He was a pure person with a great heart. Had he been lying about himself, he would have been turing the Jews away from the real God that was coming, making Jesus a demon. How could a person so kind and so pure be a demon?

Jesus could not be a madman because of his immense wisdom and sanity. When posed difficult questions meant to trick him, Jesus always had a way of answering so cleverly that he made the answer seem so obvious that the person who asked it could feel foolish for even asking. How could such a clever and witty person be crazy.

Because of these, there's only one sane conclusion we could have - Jesus is God!

Will you choose to let Jesus into your heart?

18 August Movie event - UP!

Hi all,

I'm sure all of you know the movie UP; Zenas has been raving about it for ages... We will be arranging a group movie event in Orchard on 18 August, Tue. The movie will probably be sometime in the evening, maybe around 7pm. For those who are free in the afternoon, we could have lunch and go shopping before the movie. Remember to ask your parents for permission and respect their decision. (Perhaps you can make them a deal by promising to do your work beforehand etc.)

Please sms me (at 98212425) to let me know if you will be going or not.

August Open Sunday

hey guys.
there will be open sunday on the 2nd of august.
this open sunday is hosted by vera&shun bin's CG.
let's go and have fun and have a time of fellowship together(:

**NOTE: there will be water games so bring a change of clothes and GIRLS!dark clothings(:

and finally,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERMAINE!