{"id":42798,"date":"2021-03-28T21:13:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T13:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/?p=42798"},"modified":"2021-03-28T21:13:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T13:13:03","slug":"are-you-ready-to-die-for-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/?p=42798","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAre you ready to die for the Lord?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
MTSnews<\/span><\/h6>\n

MTS 2021 School Opening Ceremony<\/span><\/p>\n

The MTS 2021 School Opening Ceremony was held on 4th January at the Wesley Methodist Church, Sibu.<\/p>\n

SCAC Bishop, Rev. Lau Hui Ming, asked : \u201cAre you ready to die for the Lord?\u201d when sharing his message during the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

Bishop Lau\u2019s message was entitled \u201cThe First Calling\u201d and he reminded the congregation that God\u2019s first call to Christians was not to call them to be pastors, church deacons, or any ministry positions, but to follow Christ, as in Mark 1:17, \u201c \u2018Come, follow me,\u2019 Jesus said, \u2018and I will send you out to fish for people.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

He pointed out that our relationship with the Lord determined how we responded to God\u2019s calling, and how we responded to the first calling determined how we responded to other callings. In other words, if we value the first calling, we would also value the subsequent calling.<\/p>\n

However when Christians respond to God\u2019s calling, they should live more like Christ, always observing Christ\u2019s will, to follow Jesus Christ throughout their lives and not to live by their own will.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is easy to get salvation, but it is not easy to live the life of a disciple. That\u2019s why Billy Graham once said that, \u2018Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Bishop Lau also quoted another scriptural text, \u201cThen he said to them all: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.\u201d (Luke 9: 23)<\/p>\n

By his understanding, \u201ctaking up the cross\u201d can be divided into two parts, namely surrendering to God and denying oneself. \u201cTo surrender to God is to willfully surrender everything to God. Under all circumstances, we must seek to be more like Christ.\u201d Denying oneself is the willingness to deny one\u2019s own possessions or status, especially superiority and pride and to put God in the center of everything, take up the cross, and serve others.<\/p>\n

Bishop Lau further quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2019s famous saying, \u201cWhen Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die\u201d, to encourage these students who committed themselves to serve the Lord.<\/p>\n

The opening ceremony saw 14 first-year students with two unable to attend the ceremony because they were under quarantine. Out of these 14, 4 are in the new BM Department, 6 in the Chinese Department and 4 in the Iban Department.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Rev. Lim Hock Sing enrolled into the 17th batch Master of Ministry program.<\/p>\n

\nReported by April Lu<\/span><\/strong>
\nTranslated by KT Chew<\/span><\/strong><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTSnews MTS 2021 School Opening Ceremony The MTS 2021 School Opening Ceremony was held on 4th January at the Wesley Methodist Church, Sibu. SCAC Bishop, Rev. Lau Hui Ming, asked : \u201cAre you ready to die for the Lord?\u201d when sharing his message during the opening ceremony. Bishop Lau\u2019s message was entitled \u201cThe First Calling\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[291,292,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}