I want more

Human beings are slaves to desire. Abraham Maslow captured well the substance of human life with his pyramid of needs. When I compare my master goal list of things to do before I die, I see in it all those categories in the pyramid: things I want to buy, places I want to visit, adventures I want to try.

Our life in the human world seems to be built of extensive study to gain knowledge, hard work to gain wealth, eating, drinking and being merry; not because we may die tomorrow, but because we think we may live on this earth yet longer.

It is my dream to either have great wealth, or power, or respect, or knowledge. If not to enjoy it, at least to find out: what would it be like?

The Bible presents an example of a man we all dream of becoming (gender notwithstanding) and work towards: Solomon.

Money, power, prestige - he had it all. Yet at the end of it, what did he have to say for himself? Ecc 12:8-14 sums his life up well with the famous "all is vanity" phrase.

Here is a man who preached sticking to God's word (v11), while at the same time condemning the uselessness of writing books and studying (v12). None of what we do is of any use. None of it will ever make us happy. Because human nature was made for one thing and one thing alone: to obey God's word.

Sparks

About Sparks

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Romans 14:19

This space was created as a means for youth of the Churches of Christ around the world to share their daily experiences and spiritual experiences with others of like faith.

By sharing our lives, our hopes, our fears and our thoughts on God, Christ and Christianity, we hope that both writer and reader will edify and learn or be edified.

In the process of communicating with each other we hope that the youth will grow closer and increase in love for each other, as well as grow in zeal for Christ.

Recent events have made it all the more necessary for us to communicate with each other and nurture Christian love among the Churches of Christ.

Ultimately we hope that our effort will glorify God and add more souls to His kingdom, both directly and indirectly.

How You Can Contribute

To reduce the workload of the site moderators we currently have only a few writers on the core team.

However, if you have something you wish to share, you may e-mail it to sparks (dot) admin (at) gmail (dot) com.

Our moderators will take a read and if it fulfils any of our objectives we will be happy to post it and credit you.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the team, we are very interested in having you.

Send us a trial article to the same address, stating your intention to join the team, as well as some background information on yourself, and we (the administrators and moderators) will evaluate your suitability.

The only requirements are an earnest desire to help our cause, although a reasonable command of English will help.

Ground Rules

1. All posts must be original works. Anything non-original must be attributed and if available online, a link must be included.
   
2. All posts must at least fulfil one of our main objectives i.e. to Glorify, Unify or Edify (GLUE).
   
3. Absolutely no profanity. Please stick to the safest of safe in terms of language.
   
4. No defamation, meaning do not write anything that may damage the reputation of a person or institution/congregation. This may result in legal suits: something we wish to avoid. Also, no personal attacks.
   
5. Articles should be personal, informal, relevant and spiritually encouraging or helpful to young Christians. We are not looking for heavy doctrinal essays here, although Biblical quotations where appropriate are highly encouraged.
   
6. All posts are subject to moderation by brothers Steven Chan (Klang Church of Christ) and Mark Lim (Damansara Utama Church of Christ). Posts are also subject to editing for grammar and clarification of meaning. Editing will be done by the administrators on a regular basis.
   
7. Any infringement of above rules will lead to removal of the post and a possible ban from posting again.

May this be the start of a journey that Glorifies God, Unifies youth and Edifies Christians for a long time to come.

The administrators,

Joan Ng, Damansara Utama COC
Joshua Chong, Klang COC