Written by Fauzan Afandi
Cold weather on Wednesday night did not seem to stop a 50-people crowd from gathering at Babbio 104 on 9:00 p.m. for the weekly Stevens Christian Fellowship (SCF) gathering. With the theme “The Pursuit of Happiness”, the weekly gathering this evening focused on the topic “Pleasure”. Before the talk began, the attendees sang two songs led by four live performers with musical instruments. Shortly after, everyone present in the room shared their prayers between each other. This enabled everyone to understand each other’s struggles and goals in life and realize that most of the time, they are not alone in facing their problems.
The talk was delivered by Chris High, a pastor from Hoboken Grace Community Church. The topic “Pleasure” was chosen for the talk that night. As most attendees were in their early twenties, the topic found a place in everyone’s heart. As a father of three adorable children, High shared a little bit of his experience with his family and his journey of discovering the Bible. His inviting mood enabled the attendees to immerse themselves in seeing the world and Jesus’ message from his perspective.
According to High, there are two untrue statements: the first one is “If you throw yourself into pleasure, you will be happy” and second one is “If you make the right decision, you will be happy”. Then, he redefined the concept of happiness by telling the audience that only if right things are being done, happiness can be achieved.
The inquisitive tone in religion is also among the issues touched by High. He shared his personal experience of having difficulty in understanding some of the verses in the Bible when he read it. Instead of bypassing the topic and continuing reading other verses, High took an initiative to write down the verses in a note and delve more into them afterwards. The significance of this step is that it enables a follower to have more ample reasoning in constructing one’s own faith, thus moving on from being a mere follower to someone that has a better understanding of one’s belief.
High concluded his talk by taking a slight incline towards realism in his perspective of pleasure. “If you stop sinning today, you still will not be happy”, according to him. While many people think that stopping to sin is the main cause of happiness, he showed the audiences a better way of seeing it. Happiness, in High’s definition, is “when we choose the right decision”. In the end of the talk, he managed to explain the happiness and how some fallacies regarding it were inadvertently developed.
The Stevens Christian Fellowship (SCF) is an inter-denominational student organization striving to glorify Jesus Christ through encouraging and enriching Christians and reaching out to the Stevens community with the Gospel. We are committed to loving God and loving others, and encouraging others to do the same. People from all backgrounds are welcome to join us in meeting and encouraging one another, hearing and understanding the Bible and discussing the spiritual life – all centered around the example of Jesus Christ (source: SCF Facebook Page). SCF holds its General Body Meeting (GBM) on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m..
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