Community Church HK Podcast

A Cruciform Life: Making Sense of Old Testament Violence

We move forward in the series, "A Cruciform Life", by looking to reconcile the image of Christ on the Cross and the acts of violence in the Old Testament.⁠ As we continue to meditate on these topics, let us reflect on Luke 24:27, which says, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
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================This Week's Scripture:// Luke 4:17-19 //...and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners    and recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free,    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

A Cruciform Life: A Beautiful Gospel

We continue in our series, "A Cruciform Life", by keeping our focus on the Cross and working to learn of the beautiful gospel that Christ left with us.⁠ As we ready our hearts and set our hearts to follow this Sunday, let us reflect on John 1:1, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."⁠
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================This Week's Scripture:// John 1:14–18 //And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

A Cruciform Life: Is God a Monster?

As we looking deeper into living "A Cruciform Life", we will investigate those times when God may be misunderstood as an angry—even monstrous—God who commands eradication of peoples amongst other things. Yet, in this service, we will learn that perhaps things are not as they seem, especially as we take a moment to reflect on 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."⁠ Let us work to better grasp these questions and begin to formulate our own responses in ways that mature us still further in our walk with our Lord.
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================This Week's Scripture:// Hosea 6:6 //For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

A Cruciform Life: The Crucified God

As we being our journey through Lent and reflect on the work of our Lord for us, we also began a new series called "A Cruciform Life". This week, we will look into the one understanding that anchors not just the series but the way we should live our lives: that God was crucified for our sakes. As we prepare for this week's service, let us reflect on 1 Corinthians 2:2, which says, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
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================This Week's Scripture:// 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 //All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who knew no sin to be sinb on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

A Bigger Table: Celebration

In our last service of this series, we look into the topic of celebration and how we can keep it in our hearts as we move through life. As we delve into this topic, let us continue to celebrate as we will soon meet together again for church, by reflecting in Philippians 4:4, which says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"
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================This Week's Scripture:// Deuteronomy 14:22-29 //Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

A Bigger Table: Growing Into Maturity

In our penultimate service that focuses on growing into maturity as Christians, we will investigate what that "maturity" means and looks like. Indeed, a big part of that growth requires an awareness on how we may be able to contribute our gifts to the church, as is reflected in Ephesians 4:16, which says, "From him the whole body grows, fitted and held together through every supporting ligament. As each one does its part, the body builds itself up in love."
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================This Week's Scripture:// 1 Corinthians 2:12-3:4 //Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, 3 for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human?

A Bigger Table: When Religion Gets in the Way

Moving into the month of February, we discuss this week about how, sometimes, it is religion itself that gets in the way of faith. As we look forward to this week's service then, let us consider the words in Romans 13:10, which says, "Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law."
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================This Week's Scripture:// John 3:1–3 //Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

A Bigger Table: Authentic Community

As we move into the first full week of this Lunar New Year, we look into a topic that is close to the heart of the church and our culture: authentic community. As we prepare for this week's service, let us meditate on 1 John 3:17, "But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?"
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================This Week's Scripture:// Hebrews 10:19-25 //Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near.

A Bigger Table: What About Our Family?

As we look forward to the meeting on the first day of the Year of the Rabbit, we continue in our current series by looking at family, and how we might bring them into the fold. In preparing for the service, let us ready our hearts with 1 John 4:12, "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
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================This Week's Scripture:// Philippians 3:7-14 //But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

A Bigger Table: Gospel-Focused

Moving deeper into our series, "A Bigger Table," we look this week at what it means to be focused on the gospel in our lives. As we prepare our hearts for the service, let us take in the words of our Lord from Matthew 9:12b, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."
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================This Week's Scripture:// Matthew 9:9-13 //As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”