Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It has been a busy morning after prayer meeting – many emails and business decision to make before I can switch to my meditative mode. It does require a deliberate act to choose spending time in meditation or listening to God. We tend to react or to be driven by urgency around us, even when we have the liberty to choose how to use our break time. You can either use it to gossip or worship. I like the way Petersons explored the theme of freedom in his devotional. It could be over your head if you don’t pause and meditate. But if you follow him closely, you will enjoy the insights he shared.
It takes a certain bold courage to receive freedom. The free life is demanding life. Living in freedom is demanding and sometimes painful. If security is our highest priority, we will not want to live free. Erich Fromm’s book “Escape from Freedom” traces the elaborate attempts by which people avoid the freedom that is given to them, preferring to exist in the secure slaveries provided by totalitarian governments, or totalitarian habits, or totalitarian emotions, or totalitarian addictions.
In every generation great crowds of people mindlessly shuffle along with the herd and do nothing beyond providing statistics for sociological surveys. But also in every generation a few persons live intelligently and courageously in freedom. For these persons, the letter to the Galatians has often been the catalyst to the free life. At several critical times in history this letter, listened to by small groups of Christians, has shifted the direction of the age just enough to make the difference between a surge of new life and a drifting into decline.
When people have felt victimized by fear and oppression, it has been a means of setting them free. When many have been paralyzed by anxiety and apprehension, it has stimulated them to an energetic hope. When there has been widespread confusion and bickering and uncertainty about what life was, it has clarified and convinced people of exactly what it means to live openly and well, convinced them to the point of participation in the rescue by which God sets us free to live.
Paul’s greeting anticipates what we can expect: “grace . . . and peace.” Grace! Life is a gift. Peace! Life is whole. The two words declare that we are, fundamentally and finally, free to live. Life is what we are given, not what we salvage out of the ruins of home and culture. Life is an entirety into which we grow, not a fragment that we snatch on the run.
So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue (Galatians 1:3-4 The Message)
It is very demanding to exercise your fingers if you want to have freedom on playing piano, guitar or any music instruments. It is even more demanding if you want to have freedom in Christ. It is a spiritual battle that we are engaging daily. Satan will do whatever to enslave us in our animal instincts or sinful nature. In Christ we are no longer bond by sins. We are free. But our nature is still under the curse and bondage of sinful tendency. We need to constantly discipline or teach our soul to follow God’s way instead of our natural way. Have mercy on us, O Lord! Our nature tells us to take an easy way – live in the bondage of Satan: “Why bother to fight back?” Yet, Holy Spirit encourages us to walk in the light of God – enjoy a new free life in Christ. Choose freedom today!
Love you by this freedom in Christ,
Lawrence
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Devotional 030810
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is a blessing to have sunshine in Burlingame where I worked. I could not believe that I had to turn on my heater as I drove to work – a cold summer of San Francisco as usual. Gradually I recovered from jetlag and was able to resume my study at night. Praise the Lord! Please pray that I am able to focus on my home work after dinner. I attempted to finish all my course work within this year. Thus, I have to face the consequence of this decision (out of my free will) in the next couples of months, which is hard work after hard work… Trust that my Lord will give me sufficient grace to handle this challenge.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you (Galatians 5:1). The world had seen succession of political and social revolutions that had featured the word freedom. Especially in the Western world, but hardly confined there, aspirations to freedom were very strong. But when I looked at the people I was living with in church – fairly affluent, well educated, and somewhat knowledgeable about the Christian faith – I realized how unfree they were. They were buying expensive security systems to protect their possessions from burglary. They overcome with anxieties in the face of economic depressions. They were pessimistic about the prospects for justice and peace in a world bristling with sophisticated weapons systems and nuclear devices. They were living huddle worried, defensive lives. I wanted to shout in objection: Don’t live that way! You are Christians! Our lives can be a growth into freedom instead of a withdrawal into anxious wariness.
Instead of shouting I returned to my regular round of work – preaching and teaching, visiting and counseling, praying and writing, encouraging and directing—but I was determined to seek ways in which I could awaken a hunger and thirst for the free life among people who had lost an appetite for it, and then, having awakened the appetite, to find the food and drink that would satisfy it. The more I did this, the more I became convinced that the experience of freedom in the life of faith is at the very heart of what it means to be human.
Freedom is not an abstraction, and it is not a thing. It is a gift and a skill. It is a gift that another provides; it is a skill that must be exercised by each person within the learned limits of reality. If we would understand freedom, we must be taught; if we would acquire freedom, we must be trained.
I found my best help in doing this in Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Among the writers of Scripture, Paul is the specialist in matters of freedom: “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness” (Galatians 5:16-17 The Message)
The more I exercise the freedom I have in Christ, the more strength I acquire to deal with all kinds of oppositions or hardship in life. Depression or frustrations induced by relational issue can be overcome by exercising our freedom in Christ. If we build our security and joy solely on a relationship or a person, we are actually surrendering our freedom to the jurisdiction of this relationship or person. That’s why God forbids His people to worship any idols in the 10 Commandments. If we do, we will be disappointed and hurt badly through it. Don’t idolize your spouse or your boss – don’t give them the power to control your security and joy. They are not God. They cannot give you the ultimate peace and joy that you desire. Give yourself to God and worship Him alone. Amen!
Love you as fellow worshipper of Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. It is a blessing to have sunshine in Burlingame where I worked. I could not believe that I had to turn on my heater as I drove to work – a cold summer of San Francisco as usual. Gradually I recovered from jetlag and was able to resume my study at night. Praise the Lord! Please pray that I am able to focus on my home work after dinner. I attempted to finish all my course work within this year. Thus, I have to face the consequence of this decision (out of my free will) in the next couples of months, which is hard work after hard work… Trust that my Lord will give me sufficient grace to handle this challenge.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you (Galatians 5:1). The world had seen succession of political and social revolutions that had featured the word freedom. Especially in the Western world, but hardly confined there, aspirations to freedom were very strong. But when I looked at the people I was living with in church – fairly affluent, well educated, and somewhat knowledgeable about the Christian faith – I realized how unfree they were. They were buying expensive security systems to protect their possessions from burglary. They overcome with anxieties in the face of economic depressions. They were pessimistic about the prospects for justice and peace in a world bristling with sophisticated weapons systems and nuclear devices. They were living huddle worried, defensive lives. I wanted to shout in objection: Don’t live that way! You are Christians! Our lives can be a growth into freedom instead of a withdrawal into anxious wariness.
Instead of shouting I returned to my regular round of work – preaching and teaching, visiting and counseling, praying and writing, encouraging and directing—but I was determined to seek ways in which I could awaken a hunger and thirst for the free life among people who had lost an appetite for it, and then, having awakened the appetite, to find the food and drink that would satisfy it. The more I did this, the more I became convinced that the experience of freedom in the life of faith is at the very heart of what it means to be human.
Freedom is not an abstraction, and it is not a thing. It is a gift and a skill. It is a gift that another provides; it is a skill that must be exercised by each person within the learned limits of reality. If we would understand freedom, we must be taught; if we would acquire freedom, we must be trained.
I found my best help in doing this in Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Among the writers of Scripture, Paul is the specialist in matters of freedom: “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness” (Galatians 5:16-17 The Message)
The more I exercise the freedom I have in Christ, the more strength I acquire to deal with all kinds of oppositions or hardship in life. Depression or frustrations induced by relational issue can be overcome by exercising our freedom in Christ. If we build our security and joy solely on a relationship or a person, we are actually surrendering our freedom to the jurisdiction of this relationship or person. That’s why God forbids His people to worship any idols in the 10 Commandments. If we do, we will be disappointed and hurt badly through it. Don’t idolize your spouse or your boss – don’t give them the power to control your security and joy. They are not God. They cannot give you the ultimate peace and joy that you desire. Give yourself to God and worship Him alone. Amen!
Love you as fellow worshipper of Christ,
Lawrence
Monday, August 2, 2010
Devotional 020810
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I came back from China on Thursday but was fully occupied with answering emails and catching up with work. I don’t know why it took me longer to recover from my jetlag this time – it could be two Asian trips within two weeks that confused my body. But thanks for your prayer. I am feeling better today.
I was preaching in BACBC yesterday on Holistic Spirituality. Spirituality is not just a religious activity of our lives. It is a non-negotiable and personal part of life, which directs and empowers all the other elements of our lives. As we face hardship or pain in life, our spirituality puts us in direct link with our Creator God for help. And the Holy Spirit will mentor us through His very own presence. I like two Peterson’s devotional sharing about enemy and sin to be helpful reminders for myself:
If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch; if he’s thirsty, bring him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness, and GOD will look after you (Proverbs 25:21-22). The last word on the enemies is with Jesus, who captured the Psalms: “Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you.” But loving enemies presupposes that we know that they are there whether many or few, and have begun to identify them. Enemies, especially for those who live by faith, are a fact of life. If we don’t know we have them or who they are, we live in a dangerous naiveté, unguarded from the “virus that stalks in darkness” and “the destruction that wastes at noonday,” foolish when we pray “deliver us from evil.”
Our hate is used by God to bring the enemies of life and salvation to notice, and then involve us in active compassion for the victims. Once involved we find that while hate provides the necessary spark for ignition, it is the wrong fuel for the engines of judgment; only / love is adequate to sustain these passions.
But we must not imagine that loving and praying for our enemies in love is a strategy that will turn them into good friends. Love is the last thing that our enemies want from us and often acts as a goad to redoubled fury. Love requires vulnerability, forgiveness, and response; the enemies want power and control and dominion. The enemies that Jesus loved and prayed for killed him.
* * * * *
Sin is not what is wrong with our minds; it is the catastrophic disorder in which we find ourselves at odds with God. This is the human condition. The facts of this disorder are all around and within us, but we would prefer to forget them. To remember them is also to remember God, and to remember God is to have to live strenuously, vigorously, and in love. We have moments when we desire to dc this, but the moments don’t last long. We would rather play golf V would rather take another battery of tests at the hospital. We would rather take another course at the university. We keep looking for ways to improve our lives without dealing with God. But we can do it.
When we pray, we immerse ourselves in the living presence o God. When we pray the Psalms we pray through all the parts of our lives and our history and cover the ground of our intricate implication in sin. We acquire a colorful lexicon of words by which we recognize our detailed involvement in the race’s catastrophic separation from God: rebel, wanderer, lawless, evil-doer, guilty, liar, fool, corrupt, wicked. The seven “penitential psalms” (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) are the most famous for bringing us to this awareness but hardly a psalm goes by that does not bring another detail of our sin out of the shadows of our practiced forgetfulness.
I’m tired of all this—so tired. My bed has been floating forty days and nights. On the flood of my tears, my mattress is soaked, soggy with tears (Psalm 6:6).
I hope they are helpful to you as you encounter life with God each day.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. I came back from China on Thursday but was fully occupied with answering emails and catching up with work. I don’t know why it took me longer to recover from my jetlag this time – it could be two Asian trips within two weeks that confused my body. But thanks for your prayer. I am feeling better today.
I was preaching in BACBC yesterday on Holistic Spirituality. Spirituality is not just a religious activity of our lives. It is a non-negotiable and personal part of life, which directs and empowers all the other elements of our lives. As we face hardship or pain in life, our spirituality puts us in direct link with our Creator God for help. And the Holy Spirit will mentor us through His very own presence. I like two Peterson’s devotional sharing about enemy and sin to be helpful reminders for myself:
If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch; if he’s thirsty, bring him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness, and GOD will look after you (Proverbs 25:21-22). The last word on the enemies is with Jesus, who captured the Psalms: “Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you.” But loving enemies presupposes that we know that they are there whether many or few, and have begun to identify them. Enemies, especially for those who live by faith, are a fact of life. If we don’t know we have them or who they are, we live in a dangerous naiveté, unguarded from the “virus that stalks in darkness” and “the destruction that wastes at noonday,” foolish when we pray “deliver us from evil.”
Our hate is used by God to bring the enemies of life and salvation to notice, and then involve us in active compassion for the victims. Once involved we find that while hate provides the necessary spark for ignition, it is the wrong fuel for the engines of judgment; only / love is adequate to sustain these passions.
But we must not imagine that loving and praying for our enemies in love is a strategy that will turn them into good friends. Love is the last thing that our enemies want from us and often acts as a goad to redoubled fury. Love requires vulnerability, forgiveness, and response; the enemies want power and control and dominion. The enemies that Jesus loved and prayed for killed him.
* * * * *
Sin is not what is wrong with our minds; it is the catastrophic disorder in which we find ourselves at odds with God. This is the human condition. The facts of this disorder are all around and within us, but we would prefer to forget them. To remember them is also to remember God, and to remember God is to have to live strenuously, vigorously, and in love. We have moments when we desire to dc this, but the moments don’t last long. We would rather play golf V would rather take another battery of tests at the hospital. We would rather take another course at the university. We keep looking for ways to improve our lives without dealing with God. But we can do it.
When we pray, we immerse ourselves in the living presence o God. When we pray the Psalms we pray through all the parts of our lives and our history and cover the ground of our intricate implication in sin. We acquire a colorful lexicon of words by which we recognize our detailed involvement in the race’s catastrophic separation from God: rebel, wanderer, lawless, evil-doer, guilty, liar, fool, corrupt, wicked. The seven “penitential psalms” (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) are the most famous for bringing us to this awareness but hardly a psalm goes by that does not bring another detail of our sin out of the shadows of our practiced forgetfulness.
I’m tired of all this—so tired. My bed has been floating forty days and nights. On the flood of my tears, my mattress is soaked, soggy with tears (Psalm 6:6).
I hope they are helpful to you as you encounter life with God each day.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Devotional 150710
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Praise God for giving us earth life to cultivate relationship with Christ, before we will spend eternity with Him. When we meet the One who sits on the Throne of Glory in Heaven, we know that He is not a stranger but a friend. Jesus said, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15b). We can freely go to Him just as a friend would do to each other. And He promises that He is always there for us.
No one is born free. Our common human experience prepares us to receive this revealed truth; for when we leave the warm security of the womb, we are immediately embraced in protecting and nurturing arms. If we were set free then, we would merely die. Hunger and thirst, weather and disease, accidents and animals would make short work of us if we were set free. An infant is not born into freedom, but into a network of security and care. If the infant is carefree it is because of the constant attendance of many who are careful. We begin our lives in an intricate arrangement of constraints, limits, boundaries and restrictions. No one counts that bad. Everyone, in fact, agrees that it is good. But it is not free. If we have nostalgic longings for those years of golden innocence, they are longings not for freedom but for security. We are, if we are fortunate, born secure; we are not born free. We are, however, born with a destiny to freedom and a capacity for freedom which are realized in a life of faith.
It has been two thousand years since Christ lived and died and rose again. The world had seen succession of political and social revolutions that had featured the word freedom. Especially in the Western world, but hardly confined there, aspirations to freedom were very strong. But when I (Eugene Peterson) looked at the people I was living with as pastor—fairly affluent, well educated, and somewhat knowledgeable about the Christian faith—I realized how unfree they were. They were buying expensive security systems to protect their possessions from burglary. They were overcome with anxieties in the face of rising inflation. They were pessimistic about the prospects for justice and peace in a world bristling with sophisticated weapons systems and nuclear devices. They were living huddled, worried, and defensive lives. I wanted to shout in objection: Don’t live that way! You are Christians! Our lives can be a growth into freedom instead of a withdrawal into anxious wariness.
Instead of shouting I returned to my regular round of work— preaching and teaching, visiting and counseling, praying and writing, encouraging and directing—but I was determined to seek ways in which I could awaken a hunger and thirst for the free life among people who had lost an appetite for it, and then, having awakened the appetite, to find the food and drink that would satisfy it. The more I did this, the more I became convinced that the experience of freedom in the life of faith is at the very heart of what it means to be human.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you (Galatians 5:1). Freedom is not an abstraction, and it is not a thing. It is a gift and a skill. It is a gift that another provides; it is a skill that must be exercised by each person within the learned limits of reality. If we would understand freedom, we must be taught; if we would acquire freedom, we must be trained. Among the writers of Scripture, Paul is the specialist in matters of freedom. He said, “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness” (Galatians 5:16-17). Train yourself to exercise freedom in Christ by focusing not on your own wants and desires but Christ’s. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit, the more we find ourselves free from the bondage of sins and selfish cravings. Indeed, we are free in Christ!
Please remember me in your prayer. I am leaving tonight for China until end of the month.
Love you freely in Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. Praise God for giving us earth life to cultivate relationship with Christ, before we will spend eternity with Him. When we meet the One who sits on the Throne of Glory in Heaven, we know that He is not a stranger but a friend. Jesus said, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15b). We can freely go to Him just as a friend would do to each other. And He promises that He is always there for us.
No one is born free. Our common human experience prepares us to receive this revealed truth; for when we leave the warm security of the womb, we are immediately embraced in protecting and nurturing arms. If we were set free then, we would merely die. Hunger and thirst, weather and disease, accidents and animals would make short work of us if we were set free. An infant is not born into freedom, but into a network of security and care. If the infant is carefree it is because of the constant attendance of many who are careful. We begin our lives in an intricate arrangement of constraints, limits, boundaries and restrictions. No one counts that bad. Everyone, in fact, agrees that it is good. But it is not free. If we have nostalgic longings for those years of golden innocence, they are longings not for freedom but for security. We are, if we are fortunate, born secure; we are not born free. We are, however, born with a destiny to freedom and a capacity for freedom which are realized in a life of faith.
It has been two thousand years since Christ lived and died and rose again. The world had seen succession of political and social revolutions that had featured the word freedom. Especially in the Western world, but hardly confined there, aspirations to freedom were very strong. But when I (Eugene Peterson) looked at the people I was living with as pastor—fairly affluent, well educated, and somewhat knowledgeable about the Christian faith—I realized how unfree they were. They were buying expensive security systems to protect their possessions from burglary. They were overcome with anxieties in the face of rising inflation. They were pessimistic about the prospects for justice and peace in a world bristling with sophisticated weapons systems and nuclear devices. They were living huddled, worried, and defensive lives. I wanted to shout in objection: Don’t live that way! You are Christians! Our lives can be a growth into freedom instead of a withdrawal into anxious wariness.
Instead of shouting I returned to my regular round of work— preaching and teaching, visiting and counseling, praying and writing, encouraging and directing—but I was determined to seek ways in which I could awaken a hunger and thirst for the free life among people who had lost an appetite for it, and then, having awakened the appetite, to find the food and drink that would satisfy it. The more I did this, the more I became convinced that the experience of freedom in the life of faith is at the very heart of what it means to be human.
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you (Galatians 5:1). Freedom is not an abstraction, and it is not a thing. It is a gift and a skill. It is a gift that another provides; it is a skill that must be exercised by each person within the learned limits of reality. If we would understand freedom, we must be taught; if we would acquire freedom, we must be trained. Among the writers of Scripture, Paul is the specialist in matters of freedom. He said, “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness” (Galatians 5:16-17). Train yourself to exercise freedom in Christ by focusing not on your own wants and desires but Christ’s. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit, the more we find ourselves free from the bondage of sins and selfish cravings. Indeed, we are free in Christ!
Please remember me in your prayer. I am leaving tonight for China until end of the month.
Love you freely in Christ,
Lawrence
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Devotional 140710
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Thank God for another beautiful day. We find new joy and new strength to serve God as we choose to fill our hearts with thanksgiving. When a person chooses to dwell in worry and bitterness, he or she will only deteriorate or wither faster. Choose thanksgiving at all time, whether you are in plenty or in want. The joy of the Lord is my strength only when I focus on Him with thanksgiving that He is truly the CEO of my life. Amen?
Emerging into adolescence, children become capable of realizing the spirituality of sin. Sin is not merely something that they are forbidden to do because God says they must not under penalty of hellfire. They gradually (or suddenly!) realize that sin is an offer of godlike independence, it is an offer to “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). It not only promises sensual gratification (“good for food … a delight to the eyes”), but it promises spiritual deepening (“… to make one wise,” v.6). Until they become adolescents, with their growth spurt in spiritual capacity and their huge hunger for transcendence, children are not capable of being tempted in this way. As long as they are children, mostly dependent on others for their welfare, it never occurs to them that they might make it “on their own.” But at adolescence, with adulthood in sight, they are impatient to throw off the restrictions of childhood and reach for adulthood, and the devil promises a shortcut by promising godhead and godlike independence. Prohibitions are no longer accepted as “for their own good,” but resented as restrictive, denying them access to a spirituality which is theirs by right.
Here is one place that the adolescent insight is absolutely right. Sin is, in fact, mostly spiritual. There are moral dimensions to it, of course, matters of behavior that put them in danger and/or make them hard to live with, but mostly what sin involves is spirituality, the quest for meaning and purpose and significance. It is the moral dimensions of sin that are prominent in childhood; it is the spiritual dimensions of sin that surface in adolescence. The first sin, to aspire to “be like God,” is nothing if not spiritual. Most, if not all, sins ever since are attempts, primarily, at spirituality—attempts to become something other or better than we are, attempts at experiencing something that takes us beyond our humdrum mortality, if only momentarily.
We all went through adolescence or teenage years. For those of us parents who had teenagers before, we experienced the stormy journey of life, when teenager attempted to access their spiritual liberty to become someone different from their parents. They want to try out their desire of experiencing godlike independence at all cost – this is the realization of the sinful nature of mankind. The Bible said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8-10). Imagine if all human being never grew out of adolescence or teenage attitudes, what kind of world we will live in? Unfortunately, this is what the culture of America is like: a teenager who does not want to grow up. A highly individualistic society is like a teenager who seeks godlike independence without considering his consequence. The culture of this society is promoting a promise that can give her followers a temporal experience beyond their humdrum mortality by her philosophy and morality. Let’s see you can see the similarity of Satan’s temptation with many of today’s advertisement or not, “‘God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.’ When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it - she'd know everything! - she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate” (Genesis 3:5-6). Watch out!!!
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. Thank God for another beautiful day. We find new joy and new strength to serve God as we choose to fill our hearts with thanksgiving. When a person chooses to dwell in worry and bitterness, he or she will only deteriorate or wither faster. Choose thanksgiving at all time, whether you are in plenty or in want. The joy of the Lord is my strength only when I focus on Him with thanksgiving that He is truly the CEO of my life. Amen?
Emerging into adolescence, children become capable of realizing the spirituality of sin. Sin is not merely something that they are forbidden to do because God says they must not under penalty of hellfire. They gradually (or suddenly!) realize that sin is an offer of godlike independence, it is an offer to “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). It not only promises sensual gratification (“good for food … a delight to the eyes”), but it promises spiritual deepening (“… to make one wise,” v.6). Until they become adolescents, with their growth spurt in spiritual capacity and their huge hunger for transcendence, children are not capable of being tempted in this way. As long as they are children, mostly dependent on others for their welfare, it never occurs to them that they might make it “on their own.” But at adolescence, with adulthood in sight, they are impatient to throw off the restrictions of childhood and reach for adulthood, and the devil promises a shortcut by promising godhead and godlike independence. Prohibitions are no longer accepted as “for their own good,” but resented as restrictive, denying them access to a spirituality which is theirs by right.
Here is one place that the adolescent insight is absolutely right. Sin is, in fact, mostly spiritual. There are moral dimensions to it, of course, matters of behavior that put them in danger and/or make them hard to live with, but mostly what sin involves is spirituality, the quest for meaning and purpose and significance. It is the moral dimensions of sin that are prominent in childhood; it is the spiritual dimensions of sin that surface in adolescence. The first sin, to aspire to “be like God,” is nothing if not spiritual. Most, if not all, sins ever since are attempts, primarily, at spirituality—attempts to become something other or better than we are, attempts at experiencing something that takes us beyond our humdrum mortality, if only momentarily.
We all went through adolescence or teenage years. For those of us parents who had teenagers before, we experienced the stormy journey of life, when teenager attempted to access their spiritual liberty to become someone different from their parents. They want to try out their desire of experiencing godlike independence at all cost – this is the realization of the sinful nature of mankind. The Bible said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8-10). Imagine if all human being never grew out of adolescence or teenage attitudes, what kind of world we will live in? Unfortunately, this is what the culture of America is like: a teenager who does not want to grow up. A highly individualistic society is like a teenager who seeks godlike independence without considering his consequence. The culture of this society is promoting a promise that can give her followers a temporal experience beyond their humdrum mortality by her philosophy and morality. Let’s see you can see the similarity of Satan’s temptation with many of today’s advertisement or not, “‘God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.’ When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it - she'd know everything! - she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate” (Genesis 3:5-6). Watch out!!!
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Devotional 130710
Dear brothers and sisters,Good morning. I came back yesterday afternoon from Vancouver, Canada. It was a fruitful weekend to rekindle some friendship and explore new network of relationship. I encourage you to visit my blog (if you have not done it yet) to see my ministry album or slide show. The picture will surely give you an idea of the activities we had in Vancouver. I shared at a vision sharing banquet of about 190 people. Praise the Lord for His presence.
Happiness is not a word we can understand by looking it up in the dictionary. In fact, none of the qualities of the Christian life can be learned out of a book. Something more like apprenticeship is required, being around someone who out of years of devoted discipline shows us, by his or her entire behavior, what it is. Moments of verbal instruction will certainly occur, but mostly an apprentice acquires skill by daily and intimate association with a “master,” picking up subtle but absolutely essential things, such as timing, rhythm and “touch.”
When we read what Paul wrote to the Christian believers in the city of Philippi, we find ourselves in the company of just such a master. Paul doesn’t tell us that we can be happy, or how to be happy. He simply and unmistakably is happy. None of his circumstances contribute to his joy: He wrote from a jail cell, his work was under attack by competitors, and after twenty years or so of hard traveling in the service of Jesus, he was tired and would have welcomed some relief. That’s why he wrote, “I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance” (Phil 1:19).
The kind of happiness that Paul described was not the same kind of happiness our world promotes. The world promotes the happiness that requires something happens. It is circumstantial and materialistic. But the kind of happiness that Bible describes is internal and supernatural. It is “irrational” to the world that a Christian could rejoice in a circumstance that is not pleasant and happy. Just as Prophet Habakkuk said, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab 3:17-18). To many brothers and sisters who have been going through economic down turn is experiencing this kind of lesson. May God strengthen their joy from within so that they experience a major break through in life!
Thanks to your prayer and support. Loretta got a permanent job in the City of San Francisco. She is going through training this month. During this period of laid off from last May, she really experienced the joy and provision (a temp job) from above. God is faithful and kind. He wants His children to enjoy His abundant life regardless of materialistic abundance. And through this journey of waiting, we drew closer to the Lord for His daily presence and provision. We learnt to ask for His Kingdom before asking for our daily bread. It reminds us of our commitment to “seek Him first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,” we know for sure that He will provide all that we need in life. Amen? May God strengthen your walk with Him today!
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Friday, July 9, 2010
Devotional 090710
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Praise God for another beautiful day. I am leaving for Vancouver, Canada for a weekend ministry this afternoon. Pray that God will open doors for us to meet the kind of people who will partner with us in the gospel. Appreciate if you will remember me in your prayer. God is good and He is good to us all the time. I know I am not going out alone but with His companionship. I thank God for the privilege to watch Him at work globally.
Watch is the essential word in the Morning Prayer. A biblical trained ear hears a story in the word. Jacob, fleeing from his father-in-law Laban, was caught in Gilead. Laban thought he had been defrauded by Jacob; Jacob was sure he had been gypped by Laban. In Gilead, through argument and prayer, they came to an agreement. They set up an altar pillar and ate a covenantal meal before it. They named the pillar, “Watching Place.” They had spent twenty years watching each other suspiciously, watching for opportunities to take advantage of each other. Here they agreed to quit watching each other and let God watch them. Early in the morning the two old antagonists parted – Laban returned to Haran and Jacob entering Canaan where he still had to face the enmity of his brother Esau – with their morning prayer echoing across the Gilead hills: “The Lord watch between you and me, while we are absent one from the other.” Leaving the place of morning prayer and watching, the first things Jacob saw were the angels of God. He exclaimed, “This is God’s army!” (Gen 31).
The “Watching Place” is a borderline experience repeated as often as every morning. We watch to see what God will do with the assemblage of hopes and fears we set before Him. Morning prayer places us before the watchful God and readies us to enter the day watchful, watching our dangerous past recede, watching the dangerous day fill with God’s angels.
Indeed, every day is an adventure that requires “watchfulness.” Satan will put different road blocks and hidden attacks in our daily life path. Our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan need to be watchful at all time especially when they need to go into town or enemy’s territory. We need the same kind of watchfulness in our lives at all time. But most importantly, we need God to watch over us at all time, and we surrender to His guide as we venture out in life. Paul said in Ephesians 5:14-16, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
The way to “wake up from the dead” must first involve “putting to death our old self.” Once we recognize the root of our problem (our old sinful nature), and surrender our body to the molding of God, then we become watchful according to His agenda and guidance in life. By doing so, we walk in the light with the joy of Christ flowing through us. As we respond to His watching, we will make the most of every opportunity in life for His glory. In whatever business or challenge you face in life, you know His is watching.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. Praise God for another beautiful day. I am leaving for Vancouver, Canada for a weekend ministry this afternoon. Pray that God will open doors for us to meet the kind of people who will partner with us in the gospel. Appreciate if you will remember me in your prayer. God is good and He is good to us all the time. I know I am not going out alone but with His companionship. I thank God for the privilege to watch Him at work globally.
Watch is the essential word in the Morning Prayer. A biblical trained ear hears a story in the word. Jacob, fleeing from his father-in-law Laban, was caught in Gilead. Laban thought he had been defrauded by Jacob; Jacob was sure he had been gypped by Laban. In Gilead, through argument and prayer, they came to an agreement. They set up an altar pillar and ate a covenantal meal before it. They named the pillar, “Watching Place.” They had spent twenty years watching each other suspiciously, watching for opportunities to take advantage of each other. Here they agreed to quit watching each other and let God watch them. Early in the morning the two old antagonists parted – Laban returned to Haran and Jacob entering Canaan where he still had to face the enmity of his brother Esau – with their morning prayer echoing across the Gilead hills: “The Lord watch between you and me, while we are absent one from the other.” Leaving the place of morning prayer and watching, the first things Jacob saw were the angels of God. He exclaimed, “This is God’s army!” (Gen 31).
The “Watching Place” is a borderline experience repeated as often as every morning. We watch to see what God will do with the assemblage of hopes and fears we set before Him. Morning prayer places us before the watchful God and readies us to enter the day watchful, watching our dangerous past recede, watching the dangerous day fill with God’s angels.
Indeed, every day is an adventure that requires “watchfulness.” Satan will put different road blocks and hidden attacks in our daily life path. Our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan need to be watchful at all time especially when they need to go into town or enemy’s territory. We need the same kind of watchfulness in our lives at all time. But most importantly, we need God to watch over us at all time, and we surrender to His guide as we venture out in life. Paul said in Ephesians 5:14-16, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
The way to “wake up from the dead” must first involve “putting to death our old self.” Once we recognize the root of our problem (our old sinful nature), and surrender our body to the molding of God, then we become watchful according to His agenda and guidance in life. By doing so, we walk in the light with the joy of Christ flowing through us. As we respond to His watching, we will make the most of every opportunity in life for His glory. In whatever business or challenge you face in life, you know His is watching.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
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