His Perfect Standards

Last week's speaker @ church was preaching on the topic "Battles from Within".

He was narrating a trip to the Newater plant with the sunday school kidz where each was given a bottle of Newater as sourvenir. And he asked the congregation this Qn: "Would you find the newater acceptable if the label on the bottle says it contains 80% pure water -20% sewage? Is 90%-10% acceptable? Is 99%-1% acceptable? Consumers would only accept 100% pure water, rite?"

Thot his example was more suitable for the school kidz... but upon reflection on the passage of the day Nehemiah 5:1-12a... What walking in the fear of God requires: Embracing God's Perfect Standards. That's His benchmark that we need to strive for with uncompromised dedication.

In the same bulletin, there's this section "Pastor's Heartbeat" with the header "Go Green, But Don't Recycle" written by one of the church staff, Ivan.
Recycle your stuff, but don’t recycle your life. Don’t keep doing the same things that you’ve been doing for years. ... Doing a new thing involves risk-taking, but that is an integral part of learning and growth, and the stewardship of life (and all its resources) that God has entrusted to us. Let us not be like the third servant in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14–30) who feared taking risks and so initiated nothing for growth, with the result that he experienced no growth and proved himself unfaithful and unworthy in stewardship. Do a new thing! Learn! Grow! Don’t recycle your life!

P/s: the picture above v. scenic, ya? Taken from Andy Lau's blog... he's currently on location shooting somewhere in ulu corner 瓜州 of China (somewhere along the silk road, i think)