These are some immediate reflections as I listen (back) on sermons from CBCWLA, often resulting in brain hurting, always accompanied by caffeine. It’s a brain-dump and won’t necessarily be cohesive or coherent, most certainly won’t be exhaustive of all important parts, but will be personal to me. Here are the questions I’ll attempt to answer with each sermon I review:
What sermon did I listen to today? Title/Link.
Summarise the key points in 1-2 sentences.
What did I learn this time that I didn’t catch/forgot about when I heard it the first time?
In the first 8 chapers, Mark highlights Jesus’ authority as Lord and Christ followed by 3 different possible responses: rejection, misunderstanding, or submission. In writing to a persecuted audience in a pagan culture, Mark ends his gospel with the resurrection and the call to respond with boldness and faith, with the assurance that it is worth it.
I’m aiming to upload reading through the entire Bible at some point.
My current uploading schedule is one chapter every weekday. These letters, however, are shorter and I feel they are significantly more cohesive when read in its entirety to get a better sense of the overarching message, rather than breaking them down by chapters. They’re also short enough to read in one go, so that’s what I’ve done. As such, my upload schedule will vary depending on the number of chapters in a book. Thanks for reading with me!
These are some immediate reflections as I listen (back) on sermons from CBCWLA, often resulting in brain hurting, always accompanied by caffeine. It’s a brain-dump and won’t necessarily be cohesive or coherent, most certainly won’t be exhaustive of all important parts, but will be personal to me. Here are the questions I’ll attempt to answer with each sermon I review:
What sermon did I listen to today? Title/Link.
Summarise the key points in 1-2 sentences.
What did I learn this time that I didn’t catch/forgot about when I heard it the first time?
How has it challenged my thinking?
What practical applications can I take from it?
Before we begin with the reflections, I have to admit this took about 2 months to complete. I’m trying to figure out why it took me so long, but my initial excuse is that the audio cuts off half way through, and that just broke my concentration for the longest time. Then, when I’m having to read through just the sermon notes when I’m not a big reader, it takes me longer to get into it.
It’s not a good reason, but I’ve also been busy or distracted and have had other things to write about that require less brain power. I don’t know how realistic it would be for me to do one reflection per week so maybe if I target myself one every other week, it’d be less daunting and I’ll actually be able to stick to it.
This is what I’d love to write. This is honestly how I feel in my heart right now. But I am a Christian, and I am called to not hate you, but rather love you despite hating your sin, and oh boy do you have a lot. Not that I don’t have my own sins, but you — how dare you? How could you? How can you?
You call yourselves Christians, so I will judge you as a Christian according to 1 Corinthians 5:12. Listen well, “Christians”:
You live in unrepentant sin.
This is not an exhaustive list of your sins – they are just the ones that I can list for now without exhausting myself mentally when I think of you:
God does indeed forgive. But He forgives those who are repentant. He forgives those who come before Him, crying for forgiveness, begging on their knees for mercy, broken by the weight of the sins on their shoulders. He desires mercy, and He will never turn away a contrite heart.
But you? You are shallow, selfish, narcissistic, greedy… insolent, haughty, boastful, an inventor of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. You are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. You deserve to die.
So repent. Genuinely repent. You do not fool anyone with your crocodile tears. Come before Him with your true heart and your true tears. Beg for forgiveness – not so that you can manipulate your followers for more money and continue your social media career, but so that you can learn to truly love others as you love yourself.
I would love to see that day, because the world can see how much you love yourselves. I’d love to see the day you love others the same amount.
If you do not repent, you will face the wrath of my almighty God. You do not know Him for you worship the god of yourself, an image created by you. But I hope you come to know Him. I hope you come to true repentance, and receive true forgiveness.
Remember this:
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Revelation 20:12-13, ESV
And thanks be to God, I no longer hate you, for I know that vengeance is His, and He will repay.
I implore you to seek truth, to seek Him. I pray that if you are grieved, you will be grieved to repentance; be convicted. I know that child is in His hands, as are you. My God will protect him, but as for you – decide if you will be true to your Christian claims, or stop using the name of God in vain.
With all the Christ-like love I can muster, Crystina.
Edit 15th May 2021: This playlist was originally just for 2 Corinthians, when I was just starting to upload my Bible reading. Now that I’ve read through all of the other epistles, I decided to go back and read Paul’s longer epistles and put them all in this playlist. I’m currently working on reading Romans, then 1 Corinthians will follow.
I’m aiming to upload reading through the entire Bible at some point. Let’s see how that goes. For the time being, thanks for reading with me! The full playlist is here:
