Luke 15:11-24 (English)

I was asked to lead a Life Group (LG: Bible Study Group) for yesterday's study.
I chose Luke 15:11-24 for my study.

We walk in the path which God prepared for us. But, we get lost sometimes, and we may go round and round and cannot reach to the right place easily. I often walked the dark path before becoming a Christian.

However, God is waiting for us to come back to Him ALWAYS and WHEREVER we are.

God welcomes you when you come back. He will hold you with His big and warm arms! Then He gives rewards to you!! :) because He has EVERYTHING and He knows what is best for you and He provides you with them!!!

Like the son in the Scripture (Luke 15:11-24), we may have sinned in the past, even just a few hours ago. Though we are sinners, God loves us perfectly, purifys us, cleanses our sins and make us a brand new and better person than before, only if we repent and come back to Him with the committment to follow Him always.

I was extremely exhausted until I started my LG study. I was wondaring around because of devil's voices though God drew me back to His way. BUT! just when I started my study, I was welcomed in God's arms!! :) and got loads of blessings and grace from Him♪
Here are the situations or moments I was losing my focus on God.

Physical tiredness can NEVER win over my passion to Jesus!
I was awake until 4.30am Sunday night becuase I was so excited about the baptism which we supposed to have on Monday. Though I was tired physically as I was serving from early morning to late at night, I could not sleep! However, the baptism was cancelled... So, I decided to have fellowship with my friends instead to make much use of the precious time God gave me, while expecting the next baptism will be so much blessed!! Everything was good, lunch and sharing, chatting, ... I felt Holy Spirit's presence, but I felt tired... because I slept only 2 hours!
As it was really hard to wake up on Tuesday and I was dizzy while I was working, I didn't really know if I could lead the LG with this condition. But I had a strong feeling that I cannot be defeated by this situation!

God sends "Angels" to protect us and He warns us through good friends!!
Until the night before (Monday night), I was relaxed thinking I can share my experience at Hillsong, and it's gonna be easy until I've got an e-mail from our LG leader (M) and she remided me that it's really important to do "Bible" Study. I realised that I was forgetting the "real" meaning of LG. LG is the place where we learn God's Words, share His great miracles and experiences with Him, share our happiness, pains and problems, and pray for each other. It is NOT for a just fun dinner or chat with friends. Because I was too relaxed and not committed, I was about to miss out the chance to be used by Him (to serve Him)!!!

Sticking to what God speaks to you for the very first time makes differnece!
I chose this topic of "Salvation" because I heard there would be three non-Christians, however, there were only "Christians". Though I thought I would change my topic once, I decided to keep it as I prepared. And, it turned to be so much blessed LG! We had a great time!! I learned from God that though we are "Christians", we can get lost sometimes and need salvations at each time when we lose our focus on Jesus.

Result of coming back to God and following His Voice:
As we had 8-10 girls in our group, we splitted into two groups, and I was asked to do my study with a Japanese-speaking Group of four. Each of them actively participated in the discussion and shared their ideas and experiences that they were shown God's Grace!! That was awesome!! Thank you!!! Although it was the 2nd time for me to lead a group, I found that I was speaking what Holy Spirit speaks to me by giving me wisdoms and ideas while I was talking to them. That was the Holy Spirit leading the group, not me! So, I could feel that the words I spoke reached their heart.
After the LG, I was so thankful that I was not defeated by the devil's voices "doubts" "worries" "tiredness" etc. That was God who protected me and keep me from saying "I'm not going to the LG because I am tired" or "I will ask M to do the study today". If I chose to follow devil's voices, I could not experience this awesome LG! Especially, during the study, God assured me that He will bring lots of salvations in us and He will give us grace and even a lifetime partner for each of us.
Thank You, God! for Your Promises! Thank You for your presence and protecting us always!!