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Island South Bible Study Conference
Organized by HKBTS and assisted by the Fellowship of Pastoral Workers in Island South, the Bible Study Conference has been held five Sunday afternoons in succession at Aberdeen Baptist Church beginning May 1. This conference was made possible through the cooperation of a number of Island South churches. These churches have encouraged their church members to attend with the result that almost four hundred people were in attendance each time. Five Biblical Studies teachers from the Seminary went to the church successively to share their spiritual food and service with our brothers and sisters. These meetings gave our teachers an opportunity to get to know these churches as they served them. It was also heartening to see the thirst and excitement for the word of God in the hearts of our brothers and sisters!
This theme of the conference was “The Lord of All Nations and All Peoples: We Are the People of God.” This was the third district-wide spiritual enrichment Bible Study Conference after Shatin and Tsuen Wan. The next Bible Study Conference will be held in September and October at Kwun Tong Baptist Church with the theme “Blessed are the Poor? Biblical Teachings on the Poor.” This Bible Study Conference will also be held on five consecutive Sunday afternoons with our five Bible Study teachers as speakers.
The Seminary will continue to go to every district, sharing the spiritual feast from one place to another. Through such a series of Bible Study meetings, we can visit and serve brothers and sisters in the different districts. In the past two years, God has blessed the Seminary with a particularly strong faculty team in Biblical Studies and our rich blessings from God have compelled us to make a greater effort to share the Word of God. Furthermore, as a seminary that lays great emphasis on the Word of God, we particularly hope to have the opportunity to study God’s Word with our brothers and sisters. We want to encourage them and equip them to learn more about God’s Word so that their spiritual lives can be imbued with biblical wisdom and vision.
Responses from Two Attendants
Chan Kam-cheong
In May, I feasted on a rich banquet which was the Bible Study Conference. Its theme was “The Lord of All Nations and All Peoples: We Are the People of God” and it was held for five Sunday afternoons in succession. I was privileged to attend the whole five-day seminar and witnessed how brothers and sisters enthusiastically expressed their strong thirst for God’s Word. It was heartening to see different age groups actively participating in the event and encouraged one another in studying God’s Word. I was deeply touched and invigorated!
Five Old and New Testament teachers from HKBTS spoke on the theme, “We Are the People of God” befitting their respective fields and giving free play to each teacher’s expertise. Although divided into five meetings, the seminar was coherent in thought and had a unity in style. On the one hand, most importantly it aroused our interest to keep studying the Bible in greater depth; on the other hand, it has aroused our thinking, helping us to reflect on the state of our spiritual lives. Each of the seminary professors had their own distinctive style: some were concise, in-depth and presenting in good order and with good reasoning; others had distinct personality, and made vivid presentations with humorous delivery; some spoke soul to soul, pleasantly but with an earnestness. Each was outstanding in his unique way.
Chow Yuen-wah
I must thank the many HKBTS teachers who shared with us precious teaching at the Bible Study Conference. In the meeting on “To Look at the Affirmation of Israelites’ Self Identity from the Book of Joshua,” it was pointed out that the Israelites resolved to follow God and be His people took place after they had come to understand God’s love and grace. I think this ought to be the experience of generations of Israelites seeking their own identity of being the people of God and also of us, the Christians community, who become the people of God because of our faith in Christ Jesus. Besides, from the message of Judges that “We People of God Are of the Same Family,” I came to realize the importance of observing and obeying what God commands, not only individually but corporately as a nation; not only in this generation but to pass down the conviction from generation to generation.
The meeting “I Will Become a Jew?” has not only helped explain the doubt I had had in mind, but has also corrected and prepared me to continue learning “God’s People’s ‘Family Code’” (that is, the community of faith must treat one another and people in general under the governance and guidance of the Holy Spirit and seek to live out the new rule to “love others as oneself.”) In the meeting on “The Importance of the Identity of Being God’s Children to Spiritual Growth,” I learned to have the hope of glory and the biblical basis of the inheritance of God’s children so that my heart was filled with an inner joy. I hope to know more about God and through Him I hope to live out “the family code” which is by no means easy to keep.
