Knowing & Living The Gospel Are Two Different Things - Marie Toh

‘Don’t confuse God to a doctrine.’ This was something that impacted me through the talk on ‘Theology of Christian Living’. Being Presbyterian, I do sometimes feel that this is something we fall into subconsciously.

Living out the Gospel and just knowing it is two very different things. There are times I feel like I am too inadequate in terms of theology to be called a Christian, other times I feel judgmental towards certain things, which do not follow the doctrine enough. The need for a good balance of knowledge and action is something that is being repeated discussed a lot and I do hope and pray that all these things that we are learning and gaining will be put into action soon, or one day.

Something that I found most practical in terms of living out the Christian Living was the talk on ‘Biblical Counselling’. Being female, there are more than once a day someone will definitely come up and share with you their problems and seek advice on it.

One thing I find myself falling into is to try to solve the problem for my friend, or even for myself, in a very idealistic and non-viable way. What I learnt during the talk was to instead listen, and show love, and slowly find the root cause of this issue, the core idol. Only then can we 'treat' the problem with more specific prayer and help. Through the short exercise, I understand it is no easy task. Matters of the heart are always a delicate issue to handle, however, I have realised it is an effective way of outreach as we are called to help the lost and broken.

I think being someone who is prone to being very self-centred; I would like to focus more on others, people around me, instead of myself. More often than not, the lack of care and love for others leads one to develop some sort of idol and drive us away from God. God has called us to love one another, to love His people and care for His sheep, and through these two talks, I have come to realised that showing God’s love to others is sometimes the strongest evidence we have to prove that God does indeed exist and is interested in each and everyone of our lives.

Marie Toh