THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER

At the time of this writing, our brother Bun Hua is still in the hospital. Many times he told me that he missed going to church; he missed not the building but rather the people! “There are so many good people in the church,” he elaborated. Because he met a lot of good people at church, he finally met Our Good Shepherd. To Him, our brother Bun Hua comes every day for strength.

A church is not a physical building; a church is a spiritual building. A church exists in so far there are people in it. But, a church lives in so far as Jesus the Head of the Church lives in it. And, Jesus lives in the church in so far as He lives in us, the spiritual body of the church. Because our brother Bun Hua saw Jesus in you, he, too, trusted Him.

The other day in our prayer meeting we sang an old hymn, “The Great Love” (Kasih Besar). That song is perhaps one of the first Christian songs I learned. I did not learn it from Sunday school; I learned it from my maternal grandmother, whom I called, a-pho. My a-pho did not actually teach me the song; she simply sang it. She did not purposefully sing it to me; she just happened to sing it around me. You see, my a-pho liked to sing Christian songs.

She did not sing many songs; only a few, but she kept singing those same songs over and over. One of them was that song, “Cinta besar. Cinta besar. Tidak terduga, luas benar. Cinta besar.” (O what a great love. Unfathomable, it’s so great.) Because I heard it so many times, I had it memorized without even knowing it.

A church can consist of a thousand people, but, like salt, it’s only as good as how salty each kernel is. “Salty” Christians are effective Christians; they can’t help but season those around them.

Pastor Paul