"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:2-4

To my friends of Cell 11.09.08, 

If you missed the cell group material, it is located here.  I strongly urged you to spend time to study it in full, meditate on the verses and reflect on it whenever you can.

Given that there is much teaching within the material itself, there is no need for me to repeat them in this blog.  However, I'll like to share some additional points for you all.

In 1 Corinthians 13:13, it states that there are three great things: faith, hope and love. The greatest of them all is love. Each of one of these great things is a chunky module to be learnt. Love being the most challenging. And mastering these modules takes a lifetime. The Book of James states that the end goal is that we be mature and complete.  And complete means 100% complete = not lacking anything.

Here's the thing...unlike school, we can't just drop out from a module. We can't tell God that we like the 'love' module but we don't want to do the hope module. Oh no...all three modules are compulsory. Perseverance must finish its work.

The Apostle Paul, mentioned these three great things again in 1 Thess:

"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Thessalonians 1:3

Let's put the parts together...

(i) work produced by faith

(ii) labour prompted by love

(iii) endurance inspired by hope

Treating the Youth Group as one united body...that body is going to face many trials. It will have to persevere to mature. By the grace of God, SAY REBEL will one day bear much fruit, producing works of faith, investing in the labour of love and demonstrating the endurance of hope.