Morling Tuesday Chapel: Know the times

Speaker: Connie Duarte (Baptist Convention of Canada. Missionary in Portugal for 20 years.)

Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-13

When Connie was in seminary, she aspired to be anything but a missionary. Whenever missionary speakers came, she thought, “what if this was me one day”? Eventually she got the call to be a missionary.

There are various tricky situations we encounter in life. For example:

Someone works for the government, which subsidises work-related lunches. One day that person’s company had lunch with another company and the other company paid the lunch. However, everyone got the receipt and claimed it even though they didn’t pay for it. The person’s colleagues started pushing him to make the claim too so it won’t look suspicious.

A university student had to do a group assignment for a course. Other people in the group didn't want to do any work and made her do all the work, then they lied to the lecturer at the end of the course saying the she was the only one in the group who didn’t do any work, and she gets failed.

1Chronicles 12:32: “Men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do…”

How did those guys know what to do? How did they know the times they were living in?

Students should learn to think critically. Not meaning looking at things negatively, but to look at things as they really are. What are we reading, what are we seeing, how can we discover the truth, and identify when the truth is being twisted? What is happening in the world stage? Who has the power and why do they have it? How to explain all of these things to people who don’t belong to the Western world, who hold very different views?

Aspire to be life-long learners who can apply the bible to our times.

Understand the word, understand the world, and know what to do with what we know.

Men from Issachar were not priests. So, this call is not restricted to ordained ministers.

Acts 17:10-11: We need to be students like people of Berea.

To search the Scriptures and find out if it’s true.

They receive the message with great eagerness and examine the Scriptures to see if what Paul says is true.

We don’t always get it right. We need people who lovingly says, “can we go through that?”

What would happen if no one ever questions what they were taught? Eg. Slavery vs abolition of slavery.

Sometimes the gifts we were given are too scary. Don’t fight it though. We can’t but God can. Every type of call is vital. Rejoice in your own call and other people’s calls.

Personal thoughts and reflections:

During morning tea before Chapel, I saw Rev Lau, the senior pastor of our church. We had a chat and he asked me why did I come and study at Morling. I told him that my father passed away at that time and several coincidences happened which made me believe God wanted me to study in the seminary. Furthermore, I wanted to study God’s words firsthand and not through the highly digested materials and opinions provided by the speakers in church sermons. 

At that point in time, I had already done some pretty useful Christian courses. However, although I may take useful notes from some great resources and talks, none of them were my own material. While I may identify strongly with some of the practical tips and testimonies, none of those came from my own experience, and I wasn’t producing enough materials out of my own life experience. I felt like a “copy machine” or “note-taking machine”, just passing on some “good articles and talks” by others, which was rather similar the “forwarding option” of Facebook and other social media. 

It was in Morling that I really started developing my critical thinking skills, and I am thankful for this, because it gave me a much broader perspective. I pray that God give us more wisdom from our life experiences so that we are not just quoting other people’s stuff without any reflection, but that we really do become discerning people who know our times and know how to apply the word of God to our times.