Alfred speaks: "Soaring like eagles."

Alfred is our very cheerful, zealous and fired up brother. He loves children and is always inspiring others with his soft heart towards the word of God.

Hi bro and sis,

Let’s us turn to Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I believe everyone is familiar with this passage. I want everyone not to focus on their action but focus on their heart. What do they have that we can learn from?

Gratitude! Are u grateful of what God has bless u?

From this passage, you don’t get a hint of them dragging themselves for meeting. They just love the fellowship. They enjoy the fellowship! They come together and praise God. Praise about the almighty Lord. Through this passage, I see that brothers and sisters are very grateful and they want to meet every day to praise God.

When are our meetings?
-Mid week won’t be in our own individual campus anymore. Our mid week will be on wed in church. The meetings that we have is wed, fri and sun! All meetings are compulsory! I want to see all the brothers and sisters in all meetings. They are compulsory.

If u have good reasons for not coming pls let me know. Don’t just let LP know. I need to know too. When I sms everyone about the detail of the meeting and I don’t get any reply from you, I assume you will be there. I will appreciate if u can just sms me that you are not coming for some good reason.

Why do you need to come for all the meetings? The reason is because all of us need spiritual food. We need spiritual food from the lesson, encouragement from the fellowship, input of how we can do better from our d – group. All these meetings are important! They give us spiritual food.

What stop us from going to meetings?
Ungratefulness and tiredness.

Now, I will teach you how to get strength from the Lord.

SOARING LIKE EAGLES
Have you ever wondered why Isaiah 40:31 is written the way it is?
:30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

ISA 40:31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Question: Why is the Eagle mentioned specifically?
Question: What is so special about Eagles that they have a place in the bible?
Question: What is the linkage between waiting upon the Lord and renewal of strength?
Question: Why is it that when you mount up with wings like eagles, you do not get tired?

The eagle is a creation of God. It is the most majestic of all birds and is mentioned many times in the bible. In fact, the eagle is mentioned 38 times, much more than the dove or other birds. An eagle is around 90 cm tall and reaches over 2 m between the wings. She builds her nest on the cliff or in a high tree. The nest is so large that a human can sleep in it. It can weigh 700 kg and is also comfortable.

With the basis of God's word, we shall see what the king of birds can show us concerning truths about God, and also about Christians.
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Lesson 1: All Baby Eagles Must Learn To Fly

High in the mountains, a baby eagle is born. Like all other babies, there are two things that baby eagles love to do:eat and sleep. The baby eagle would spend its initial life in the comfort of the nest. Everyday, mama eagle would find food and drop it directly into the open mouths of the hungry eaglet. With a satisfied stomach, the eaglet then goes to sleep and the cycle continues when it becomes hungry again.

This goes on for a few weeks, until one day, mama eagle would just hover over the nest. This time, there is no food. After hovering a few rounds, mama eagle would make a dive into the nest and begins to shake it violently. She then takes one of her babies in her mouth and starts rounds, mama eagle would make a dive into the nest and begins to shake it violently. She then takes one of her babies in her mouth and starts soaring into the skies. The baby eaglet begins to tremble, "Mama is mad! Mama is mad!" Suddenly, she drops the baby eaglet who starts to struggle.

Just before the eaglet smashes against the rocks, mama eagle would sweep down and pick it up. This goes on for about five to eight times. The eaglet starts to wonder why mama is doing this. Everytime it is being dropped from the sky, the eaglet would struggle by flapping its wings. "Mama can fly. I want to fly like her too!", the eaglet says to itself. What beautiful picture! Mama is teaching her young to fly. At about the fourteenth to fifteenth try, the eaglet begins to fly.

Relevance
Christians are like baby eagles, comfortable in the nest. They come to church once a week for food. They would wait for pastor to drop "spiritual" food into their mouths. When service is over, they would go home, "sleep" for a few days and the cycle continues, until one day, something happens and they struggle. The nest gets shaken and they don't know what to do. "It's the devil! It's the devil!" they exclaim. No, it's not! It's just our loving Father who allows our nest to be shaken because He wants us to grow into maturity, so that we can fly. It's no point being an eagle that cannot fly.

The Word of God says in Exodus 19:4 that God bare the children of Israel on eagles' wings. Here we see the eagle symbolise God. The way mama eagle treats her young shows us how God treats His children. In the world, they push people upward when they are going up. But God lets us fall down to get us up.

When you are ready, your time will come, God is going to shake your nest, wanting you to leave your comfort zone.

God carries us supernaturally through all our trials, even if we don't feel it. God teaches us to Believe His word and use our Faith.
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Lesson 2: Eagles Are Made For The High Places

Unlike other birds that fly in the lowlands, eagles are created to fly in the high places, out of sight of the naked human eye and out of range of the hunter's rifle. - Relevance God made us to fly in the high places, free from the world's control. A tourist to the Jurong Bird Park once commented that the eagles there looked very clean. In reply, the bird-keeper said: "When eagles are in freedom, they are the cleanest birds. But when they are in captivity, they are the dirtiest."

God made us pure and holy to conform to the image of His Son. If Christians are in captivity, that is subjected to the ways of the world, we can be the "dirtiest" of all creatures.
What are the things that you are subjected to his world that makes us dirty? Greed. Ambition so on… For student, what are the examples of greed? Putting their study above God. I am a teacher and I am a believer in education. As a Christian, we should glorify God in our studies. However, if we study and don’t prioritize our time well and not come to church meetings that is not right.

Don’t let Greed captives you. Don’t let ambition captives you. Let us "fly" in the high places, out of the world's control.
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Lesson 3: Eagles Do Not Fly, They Soar

Eagles do not fly like other birds, flapping their wings profusely and using their own strength. Instead, eagles SOAR majestically, making use of the wind currents to gain height. What makes the eagle so special is that she sits on the rock and reads the wind and when the time is perfect she takes off and soars upward with her great wings.

There is a special up going wind where the eagle rides the wind and circle higher and higher toward the sky, without effort. She just spreads her wings.

The wind is referred many times in the bible as the Holy Spirit. We can learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and let Him lift us closer to Jesus. The eagle in this case is the Christian who is being lifted by the Holy Spirit up and closer to Jesus.

Like eagles, we should learn to ride on the current of the Holy Spirit, instead of relying on our own strength. Only then can we "gain height" to "fly" in the high places. Isaiah 40:31 talks about growing in Christ, that happens when we have fellowship with Him in the Spirit.