Old Testament Challenge, So What?

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Last week, Old Testament Challenge (OTC) rounded up for our church and there was a good sermon rounding up the main lesson about the OTC; that the Old Testament and in fact the bible is about who God is (His character, His love) and who we are as well as how God reaches out, throughout the history of mankind documented in the bible, sending kings, priests and even prophets after prophets to bring people back to God, and ultimately sending Christ to bore our sins on the cross.

Testimonies about how OTC has changed lives were also shared and frankly, I had also thought of sharing my own testimony but I guessed I did not have the courage to write something for the whole congregation and I also did not managed to do it in time. Anyway, thought that it might be a good time to also round up OTC at cell level and have everyone share their experience and their testimonies, if any. I myself looked through OTC and penned down the following:

OTC had indeed been a challenge for me because it documented the most intense period of my spiritual growth with ups and downs because it coincided with my stepping up to cell leadership. I won't say that it has been an easy time but it has been a time of intense growth and I have surprisingly grown leaps and bounds. I have always joked that maybe because I had backslided for 15 years, God placed me on the fast track of spiritual growth. Looking back, it is just amazing how much things are different:

• In the past, I did not know how to pray but can now I pray with confidence and words just come naturally as I pray
• In the past, I hardly touch the bible but with cell preparation, I have come to see the bible in a different light, learning new things about God's character and love and also having His word "leaping" out to me when I needed to hear from God
• Despite coming out of the Da Vinci Code having doubts about God, how I have come to realise how real He is in my life, more God-aware and also learning to fear and love Him more.
• I have come to experience how real God is in my life and how He is in control and guides me not only at work but also in ministry, putting me on a modular system on cell leadership, speaking to me week after week and also feeling that He ministers and leads cell through me
• I have come to learn to rely more on God and to trust His plans for our lives, even though I sometimes do not understand things.
• I had been healed of unforgiveness after 2 years and walking confidently

As I look through OTC, I have learnt much through the following sessions:

• Week 6 (God the Lawgiver): How the law has been given out of God's love to protect our relationship with Him and what is important is living out the spirit of the law i.e. love the Lord your God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and loving our neighbor as ourself rather than living the letter of the law.
  
• Week 10 (The Law of the First Step): How we should always remember God's faithfulness in our lives because we tend to forget like the Israellites, which is why God commanded in Exodus 16:32 for the people to keep the manna given to them to remind future generations and also in Joshua 4:20-24 where Joshua explained that the 12 stones from the Jordan serves to remind the people of how He brought them across the Jordan River
• Week 13 (Intercepting Spiritual Entropy): How Naomi had been a spiritual impact to Ruth, who subsequently became part of the lineage of Jesus (even though she is a Moabite) and this reminded me about how we are making spiritual impact on others' lives; about how Salvation is for all and how God has His plans for everyone even when it seems bleak
• Week 15 & 17 (Saul: Where is Your Confidence & David: Developing a Heart for God): How our confidence should be on God who never fails and not on man who can fail us; How we can start well but not end well e.g. Saul and Eli; how God looks at our hearts and not our rituals and outward appearances; how God has His plans and in time it will come to be fulfilled;
• Weeks 18 and 19 (The Height and Depths of Prayer & The Greatest Prayers of all Times): How we can be honest and truthful in worshipping God, just as I was going through a time of doubting God and got ministered to by Don Moen's song "I Will Sing"

I can go on and on but then these are just the few lessons I have taken away from OTC.