Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Thanks for your prayer for my final comprehensive exam. My professors were very gracious (each professor graded the part of exam question that he or she gave). I got an “A” from my 5 combined scores!! It means I can move on to begin my dissertation project now. This is like the last leg of my academic program. I need to submit my paper by the end of this year if I want to graduate next year…Pray that the Lord will grant me enough strength and concentration to finish this research project. Again I covet your prayer for me. Please intercede on my behalf….thanks!
It is difficult to recognize pride as a sin when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable, and rewarded as an achievement. What is described in Scripture as the basic sin, the sin of taking things into our own hands, being our own god, grabbing what is there while you can get it, is now described as basic wisdom: improve yourself by whatever means you are able; get ahead regardless of the price; take care of me first. For a limited time it works. But at the end the devil has his due. There is damnation. Apostle Paul said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3-4).
It is additionally difficult to recognize unruly ambition as a sin because it has a kind of superficial relationship to the virtue of aspiration—an impatience with mediocrity, and a dissatisfaction with all things created until we are at home with the Creator, the hopeful striving for the best God has for us—the kind of thing Paul expressed: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). But if we take the energies that make for aspiration and remove God from the picture, replacing him with our own crudely sketched self-portrait, we end up with ugly arrogance. Ambition is aspiration gone crazy. Aspiration is the channeled, creative energy that moves us to growth in Christ, shaping goals in the Spirit. Ambition takes these same energies for growth and development and uses them to make something flashy and cheap, sweatily knocking together a Babel when we could be vacationing in Eden.
Eugene Peterson helps surface the hidden pride that we may not be aware of in life. It hides behind the “good character” that we want people to see. Only when we take time to carefully examine our souls on a regular basis, we cannot recognize the sins that held us back from our freedom to serve God. That’s why we need to draw close to God in order to allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to see our hidden problem. I don’t think any woman will do make up on their face without turning on the light. The more clearly you want to see, the brighter light you need. Let the best make up artist, our Holy Spirit, improves your look each day. But you need to walk into the light of His presence.
With love in His presence,
Lawrence
Showing posts with label meditate in office after meetings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meditate in office after meetings. Show all posts
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Devotional 061010
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thanks for praying for my comprehensive examination yesterday. I felt so peaceful and enjoyable to spend 10 hours at home to answer 5 big questions. I could tell somebody must be praying for me…10 hours went very smoothly. Yes, I have to budget my time well in answering all 5 questions. No, I wished I had more time to do a better job. Anyway, I have done my part. I leave it to the Lord to do His part, so that I know what to do next in life. I covet your prayer for my last phase of this study – 3 course assignments and one big dissertation to finish before the end of this year….At the meantime, I still need to preach in different places until Thanksgiving: New York, North Carolina, Brazil and Philippines.
My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore (Psalm 131). Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. It is functional to the person of faith as pruning is functional to the gardener: it gets rid of that which looks good to those who don’t know any better and reduces the distance between our hearts and their roots in God.
The two things that Psalm 131 prunes away are unruly ambition and infantile dependency, what we might call getting too big for our breeches and refusing to cut the apron strings. Both of these tendencies can easily be supposed to be virtues, especially by those who are not conversant with Christian ways. If we are not careful, we will be encouraging the very things that will ruin us. We are in special and constant need of correction. We need pruning. Jesus said, “Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). More than once our Lord the Spirit has used Psalm 131 to do this important work among his people. As we gain a familiarity with an understanding of the psalm, he will be able to use it that way with us “that we may bear more fruit.’
Jesus said, “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every ranch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken” (John 15:1-2). Since we are part of Christ, we are expected to bear fruits. And the way to bear fruits involves trimming or pruning – take away all the extravagant leaves and branches, so that all the nutrition will go to fruit bearing. This is priority setting and life-purpose checking. Don’t busy yourself in doing a lot of good “stuff,” instead of the most important stuff in life. It is time to trim your calendar and reserve more time to serve God.
With love in Christ,
Lawrence
Thanks for praying for my comprehensive examination yesterday. I felt so peaceful and enjoyable to spend 10 hours at home to answer 5 big questions. I could tell somebody must be praying for me…10 hours went very smoothly. Yes, I have to budget my time well in answering all 5 questions. No, I wished I had more time to do a better job. Anyway, I have done my part. I leave it to the Lord to do His part, so that I know what to do next in life. I covet your prayer for my last phase of this study – 3 course assignments and one big dissertation to finish before the end of this year….At the meantime, I still need to preach in different places until Thanksgiving: New York, North Carolina, Brazil and Philippines.
My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore (Psalm 131). Psalm 131 is a maintenance psalm. It is functional to the person of faith as pruning is functional to the gardener: it gets rid of that which looks good to those who don’t know any better and reduces the distance between our hearts and their roots in God.
The two things that Psalm 131 prunes away are unruly ambition and infantile dependency, what we might call getting too big for our breeches and refusing to cut the apron strings. Both of these tendencies can easily be supposed to be virtues, especially by those who are not conversant with Christian ways. If we are not careful, we will be encouraging the very things that will ruin us. We are in special and constant need of correction. We need pruning. Jesus said, “Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). More than once our Lord the Spirit has used Psalm 131 to do this important work among his people. As we gain a familiarity with an understanding of the psalm, he will be able to use it that way with us “that we may bear more fruit.’
Jesus said, “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every ranch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken” (John 15:1-2). Since we are part of Christ, we are expected to bear fruits. And the way to bear fruits involves trimming or pruning – take away all the extravagant leaves and branches, so that all the nutrition will go to fruit bearing. This is priority setting and life-purpose checking. Don’t busy yourself in doing a lot of good “stuff,” instead of the most important stuff in life. It is time to trim your calendar and reserve more time to serve God.
With love in Christ,
Lawrence
Friday, August 20, 2010
Devotional 200810
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. What a wonderful day to have some leisure time with God! 4 days of planning and evaluation meetings were quite draining mentally. On top of it, I still need to catch up with my school work which is over due at night…Thank God for extra grace and strength for me to press on. I believe our loving Heavenly Father will surely watch over each one of His children as we commit to walk with Him and live for His glory.
My son has left for college early this morning. Please pray for him. He is driving a very old Honda by himself with no air condition system from California to Tennessee, passing through desert and central plains. It will take him 3 days (driving at least 12 hours a day) to get there. And he will start school on Monday. Pray that the Lord will give him a safe journey and a long quiet time to interact with the Holy Spirit. “3 days” is a unique term in the Bible. It produces a life changing experience like Jonah in fish’s belly, our Lord Jesus in the tomb and Paul in total blindness…and at the end, a new life was born through it. Pray that it will have a similar effect on my son that his life is transformed and revived for the glory of God.
From day one, we human beings like to become God. We want to see like God and comprehend like Him. We prefer not to obey His Word but act according to our own wisdom and street smart. We always thought we knew better than even God. And because of this pride, we are tempted to go our own way and do our own things. We’re careless about God’s principles. We sugar coat this rebellion with words like “liberty” and “human rights.” In reality, we abuse liberty and human rights, to indulge our self-centeredness, just like we abuse God’s grace in many ways.
When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! (Acts 8:18-20). A curious thing happens to us when we get a taste of God. It happened first in Eden and it keeps happening. The experience of God—the ecstasy, the wholeness of it—is accompanied by a temptation to reproduce the experience as God. The taste for God is debased into greed to be God. Being loved by God is twisted into a lust to God-performance. I get a glimpse of a world in which God is in charge and think maybe I have a chance at it. I abandon the personal presence of God and take up with the depersonalized and canny serpent. I flee the shining face of God for a slithery world of religion that gives me license to manipulate people and acquire godlike attributes to myself. The moment I begin cultivating the possibility of acquiring that kind of power and glory for myself, I most certainly will want to blot out the face, flee from the presence of the Lord, and seek a place where I can develop pride and acquire power.
May God give you a good weekend to enjoy His presence…
Love you in His goodness,
Lawrence
Good morning. What a wonderful day to have some leisure time with God! 4 days of planning and evaluation meetings were quite draining mentally. On top of it, I still need to catch up with my school work which is over due at night…Thank God for extra grace and strength for me to press on. I believe our loving Heavenly Father will surely watch over each one of His children as we commit to walk with Him and live for His glory.
My son has left for college early this morning. Please pray for him. He is driving a very old Honda by himself with no air condition system from California to Tennessee, passing through desert and central plains. It will take him 3 days (driving at least 12 hours a day) to get there. And he will start school on Monday. Pray that the Lord will give him a safe journey and a long quiet time to interact with the Holy Spirit. “3 days” is a unique term in the Bible. It produces a life changing experience like Jonah in fish’s belly, our Lord Jesus in the tomb and Paul in total blindness…and at the end, a new life was born through it. Pray that it will have a similar effect on my son that his life is transformed and revived for the glory of God.
From day one, we human beings like to become God. We want to see like God and comprehend like Him. We prefer not to obey His Word but act according to our own wisdom and street smart. We always thought we knew better than even God. And because of this pride, we are tempted to go our own way and do our own things. We’re careless about God’s principles. We sugar coat this rebellion with words like “liberty” and “human rights.” In reality, we abuse liberty and human rights, to indulge our self-centeredness, just like we abuse God’s grace in many ways.
When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! (Acts 8:18-20). A curious thing happens to us when we get a taste of God. It happened first in Eden and it keeps happening. The experience of God—the ecstasy, the wholeness of it—is accompanied by a temptation to reproduce the experience as God. The taste for God is debased into greed to be God. Being loved by God is twisted into a lust to God-performance. I get a glimpse of a world in which God is in charge and think maybe I have a chance at it. I abandon the personal presence of God and take up with the depersonalized and canny serpent. I flee the shining face of God for a slithery world of religion that gives me license to manipulate people and acquire godlike attributes to myself. The moment I begin cultivating the possibility of acquiring that kind of power and glory for myself, I most certainly will want to blot out the face, flee from the presence of the Lord, and seek a place where I can develop pride and acquire power.
May God give you a good weekend to enjoy His presence…
Love you in His goodness,
Lawrence
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Devotional 070710
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I thank God for giving me a good night sleep last night. That means I have recovered from my jetlag. Praise the Lord! And next week is another trip to Asia that needs your prayer support again. But His grace is always sufficient for His servants. In my experience, the more I focused on God and His word through prayer and meditation, the more strength and healing power I received from above.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). As we prepare to pray, to answer the words God addresses to us, we learn that all of God’s words have this characteristic: they are torah (the Law or Principles of God) and we are the target. God s word is not a reference book in a library that we pull off the shelf when want information. There is nothing lifeless or bookish in these words. God’s words, creating and saving words every one, hit us where we live.
The moment we know this that God speaks to us, delight is spontaneous. “The psalms are the liturgy for those whose concern and delight is the torah of the Lord” [James Luther May]. These are not words that we laboriously but impersonally study, as if for an exam. These are not words that we anxiously examine lest we unintentionally disobey a boundary or break a protocol. These are words we take in—words designed for shaping new life in us, feeding the energies of salvation. This delight develops into meditation, torah-meditation. Meditate {hagah} is a bodily action; it involves murmuring and mumbling words, taking a kind of physical pleasure in making the sounds of the words, getting the feel of the meaning as the syllables are shaped by larynx and tongue and lips. Isaiah used this word “meditate” for the sounds that a lion makes over its prey (Isaiah. 31:4). A lion over its catch and a person over the torah act similarly. They purr and growl in pleasurable anticipation of taking in what will make them more themselves, fulfilling, strong, lithe, and swift: “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free (enlarge my capacity of understanding)!” (Ps. 119:32).
This is quite different from merely reading God’s word, or thinking about it. This is not so much an intellectual process, figuring our meanings, as it is a physical process, hearing and rehearing these words as we sound them again, letting the sounds sink into our muscles and bones. Meditation is mastication or chewing food in your mouth. This concept is similar to what Prophet Ezekiel was asked to do, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 3:1). Apostle John shared similar experience from God, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey” (Revelation 10:9b). Apparently they were challenged not to physically swallow the scroll into their stomach. They were asked to “devour” the word of God like the way we devour our favorite food. The word of God will enter into our soul like food into our body that turns into energy and all kinds of nourishments. Meditation is this “craving” and “devouring” of God’s words.
Once we have the habit of enjoying the word of God through meditation, we can understand and say the same phrase to Satan like Christ, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). We enlarge our appetite for God’s words as we develop the habit of enjoying the spiritual banquet from above. The more you eat, the larger the capacity of your digestion system and appetite you will develop for the word of God. On a contrary, the less you eat, the less appetite you have for His Word. This is dangerous if it is physical eating disorder – you will die of mal-nutrition like anorexia. But many Christian is suffering in spiritual anorexia without being aware of it at all. Have mercy on us O Lord! Deliver many brothers and sisters from this spiritual problem, which will affect their whole being as a whole. Open their eyes to see their “poor shape” and give them inner strength to fix it.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. I thank God for giving me a good night sleep last night. That means I have recovered from my jetlag. Praise the Lord! And next week is another trip to Asia that needs your prayer support again. But His grace is always sufficient for His servants. In my experience, the more I focused on God and His word through prayer and meditation, the more strength and healing power I received from above.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). As we prepare to pray, to answer the words God addresses to us, we learn that all of God’s words have this characteristic: they are torah (the Law or Principles of God) and we are the target. God s word is not a reference book in a library that we pull off the shelf when want information. There is nothing lifeless or bookish in these words. God’s words, creating and saving words every one, hit us where we live.
The moment we know this that God speaks to us, delight is spontaneous. “The psalms are the liturgy for those whose concern and delight is the torah of the Lord” [James Luther May]. These are not words that we laboriously but impersonally study, as if for an exam. These are not words that we anxiously examine lest we unintentionally disobey a boundary or break a protocol. These are words we take in—words designed for shaping new life in us, feeding the energies of salvation. This delight develops into meditation, torah-meditation. Meditate {hagah} is a bodily action; it involves murmuring and mumbling words, taking a kind of physical pleasure in making the sounds of the words, getting the feel of the meaning as the syllables are shaped by larynx and tongue and lips. Isaiah used this word “meditate” for the sounds that a lion makes over its prey (Isaiah. 31:4). A lion over its catch and a person over the torah act similarly. They purr and growl in pleasurable anticipation of taking in what will make them more themselves, fulfilling, strong, lithe, and swift: “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free (enlarge my capacity of understanding)!” (Ps. 119:32).
This is quite different from merely reading God’s word, or thinking about it. This is not so much an intellectual process, figuring our meanings, as it is a physical process, hearing and rehearing these words as we sound them again, letting the sounds sink into our muscles and bones. Meditation is mastication or chewing food in your mouth. This concept is similar to what Prophet Ezekiel was asked to do, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 3:1). Apostle John shared similar experience from God, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey” (Revelation 10:9b). Apparently they were challenged not to physically swallow the scroll into their stomach. They were asked to “devour” the word of God like the way we devour our favorite food. The word of God will enter into our soul like food into our body that turns into energy and all kinds of nourishments. Meditation is this “craving” and “devouring” of God’s words.
Once we have the habit of enjoying the word of God through meditation, we can understand and say the same phrase to Satan like Christ, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). We enlarge our appetite for God’s words as we develop the habit of enjoying the spiritual banquet from above. The more you eat, the larger the capacity of your digestion system and appetite you will develop for the word of God. On a contrary, the less you eat, the less appetite you have for His Word. This is dangerous if it is physical eating disorder – you will die of mal-nutrition like anorexia. But many Christian is suffering in spiritual anorexia without being aware of it at all. Have mercy on us O Lord! Deliver many brothers and sisters from this spiritual problem, which will affect their whole being as a whole. Open their eyes to see their “poor shape” and give them inner strength to fix it.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Friday, April 23, 2010
Devotional 230410
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Can’t believe it is Friday already! When life is so full of excitement and challenge, you don’t have time to count your date. And I am flying to seminary again this Sunday. Please remember me in your prayer that I will be able to focus on my study in the next two weeks. There are two major papers from my previous two classes that are due by the end of May. Pray that God will give me energy and right attitude to enjoy the studying process. Indeed, I learned a lot in the last couple of months. Praise the Lord!
Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” This turns everything we ever thought about God around. We think that God is an object about which we have questions. We are curious about God. , We make inquiries about God. We read books about God. We get into late night bull sessions about God. We drop into church from time to time to see what is going on with God. We indulge in an occasional sunset or symphony to cultivate a feeling of reverence for God. But that is not the reality of our lives with God. Long before we ever got around to asking questions about God, God has been questioning us. Long before we got interested in the subject of God, God subjected us to the most intensive and searching knowledge. Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know. “Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day” (Psalm 139:16).
What is God doing? He is saving; he is rescuing; he is blessing; he is providing; he is judging; he is healing; he is enlightening. There is a spiritual war in progress, an all-out moral battle. There is evil and cruelty, unhappiness and illness. There is superstition and ignorance, brutality and pain. God is in continuous and energetic battle against all of it. God is for life and against death. God is for love and against hate. God is for hope and against despair. God is for heaven and against hell. There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square foot of space is contested.
Jeremiah, before he was born, was enlisted on God’s side in this war. He wasn’t given a few years in which to look around and make up his mind which side he would be on, or even whether he would join a side at all. He was already chosen as a combatant on God’s side. And so are we all. No one enters existence as a spectator. We either take up the life to which we have been consecrated or we traitorously defect from it. We cannot say, “Hold it! I am not quite ready. Wait until I have sorted things out” (E. E Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed). For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:3-5).
When we encounter evil in the world, we do not ask whether God is on our side or not, but rather whether we are on God’s side or not. We Chinese cherish the ‘modesty principle.’ We don’t want to go extreme to one way or the other. We don’t want to eat too much meat or too much vegetable. We want to be right in the middle properly in all things in life. We thought it would be ideal to achieve “modesty or middle ground.” In many ways this principle helps Chinese to achieve compromise in conflict resolution and in building good eating habit. But it does not serve well for taking side between good and evil. If we try to put our foot on two sides, we will be torn into two. God will not pull you to His side but Satan will. God respects the free will that He has given you as His ultimate gift for mankind. He will open His arms to wait for your response. Will you accept His invitation to stand on His side in the spiritual warfare of this world? Or you will allow Satan to pull you into his camp…
Love you by His power,
Lawrence
Good morning. Can’t believe it is Friday already! When life is so full of excitement and challenge, you don’t have time to count your date. And I am flying to seminary again this Sunday. Please remember me in your prayer that I will be able to focus on my study in the next two weeks. There are two major papers from my previous two classes that are due by the end of May. Pray that God will give me energy and right attitude to enjoy the studying process. Indeed, I learned a lot in the last couple of months. Praise the Lord!
Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” This turns everything we ever thought about God around. We think that God is an object about which we have questions. We are curious about God. , We make inquiries about God. We read books about God. We get into late night bull sessions about God. We drop into church from time to time to see what is going on with God. We indulge in an occasional sunset or symphony to cultivate a feeling of reverence for God. But that is not the reality of our lives with God. Long before we ever got around to asking questions about God, God has been questioning us. Long before we got interested in the subject of God, God subjected us to the most intensive and searching knowledge. Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know. “Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day” (Psalm 139:16).
What is God doing? He is saving; he is rescuing; he is blessing; he is providing; he is judging; he is healing; he is enlightening. There is a spiritual war in progress, an all-out moral battle. There is evil and cruelty, unhappiness and illness. There is superstition and ignorance, brutality and pain. God is in continuous and energetic battle against all of it. God is for life and against death. God is for love and against hate. God is for hope and against despair. God is for heaven and against hell. There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square foot of space is contested.
Jeremiah, before he was born, was enlisted on God’s side in this war. He wasn’t given a few years in which to look around and make up his mind which side he would be on, or even whether he would join a side at all. He was already chosen as a combatant on God’s side. And so are we all. No one enters existence as a spectator. We either take up the life to which we have been consecrated or we traitorously defect from it. We cannot say, “Hold it! I am not quite ready. Wait until I have sorted things out” (E. E Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed). For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:3-5).
When we encounter evil in the world, we do not ask whether God is on our side or not, but rather whether we are on God’s side or not. We Chinese cherish the ‘modesty principle.’ We don’t want to go extreme to one way or the other. We don’t want to eat too much meat or too much vegetable. We want to be right in the middle properly in all things in life. We thought it would be ideal to achieve “modesty or middle ground.” In many ways this principle helps Chinese to achieve compromise in conflict resolution and in building good eating habit. But it does not serve well for taking side between good and evil. If we try to put our foot on two sides, we will be torn into two. God will not pull you to His side but Satan will. God respects the free will that He has given you as His ultimate gift for mankind. He will open His arms to wait for your response. Will you accept His invitation to stand on His side in the spiritual warfare of this world? Or you will allow Satan to pull you into his camp…
Love you by His power,
Lawrence
Monday, March 15, 2010
Devotional 150310
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good afternoon. It has been two weeks since I last sent you my devotional. The two weeks of study was really intensive. I dedicated all my waked up hours on either class work or home work. Praise God for giving me another two weeks of spiritual retreat. The class was spiritually uplifting and inspiring. I came to perceive theology and the Bible from a different angle. I did not really know what theology of mission was all about. Most seminaries did not offer this kind of class or require this kind of study 30 years ago. When I started putting on “missional” lenses to see the Scripture last week, I am convicted that our God is truly a “missio Dei” = missional God. And the Scripture is a calling for all His children to take part in His mission. Are you ready for action in following your missio Dei?
"Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message” (Mark 1:15). A common way to misunderstand prophecy, and especially the prophecy of the Revelation, is to suppose that it means prediction. But that is not the biblical use of the word. Prophets are not fortune tellers. The prophet is the person who declares, “Thus says the Lord.” He speaks what God is speaking. He brings God’s word into le immediate world of the present, insisting that it be heard here and now. The prophet says that God is speaking now, not yesterday; rod is speaking now, not tomorrow. It is not a past word that can be analyzed and then walked away from. It is not a future word that can be fantasized into escapist diversion. It is personal address now: ‘for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3, 22:10). “Near” means “at hand.” Not far off in the future but immediately before us; only our unbelief, or ignorance, or timid hesitancy separate us from it. Jesus also announced the immediacy of the prophetic word when he preached “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). St. John’s “near” and Jesus’ “at hand” are the same root word prophetic word eliminates the distance between God’s speaking and our learning. If we make the prophetic word a predictive word we are procrastinating, putting distance between ourselves and the application of the word, putting off dealing with it until some future date. This is what God intended for His revelation.
I have been meditating on the Kingdom of God in the past two weeks. Mission is about pronouncing the coming of the Kingdom of God since the King has already come. Matthew made it clear on this point as he recalled what his Master proclaimed, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt 28:18-19). The authority in heaven and earth represents the supreme reign of God. The resurrected Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Kingdom of God has arrived. We are the witnesses of this kingdom. God wants us to proclaim the reign of God on earth even though the ultimate maturation of this Kingdom is not here yet.
The model prayer that Jesus taught to his disciples also pointed to this spiritual reality, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matt 6:9-10). This is not a prophecy about something that is to come. It is a proclamation of a spiritual reality that has already taken place.
We make disciples not because we feel that it is a good idea. We do so because of our submission to the reign of Christ who is our King of kings. On a contrary, when we fail to do it, it is a deliberate rebellion against His reign or kingship in our lives. We are called to walk and talk like ambassador of this new Kingdom. Only when we recognize the kingship of our Lord Jesus in our own lives by obedience, we will not make disciples of all nations even with the power and resources vested in us.
With love in His kingdom,
Lawrence
Good afternoon. It has been two weeks since I last sent you my devotional. The two weeks of study was really intensive. I dedicated all my waked up hours on either class work or home work. Praise God for giving me another two weeks of spiritual retreat. The class was spiritually uplifting and inspiring. I came to perceive theology and the Bible from a different angle. I did not really know what theology of mission was all about. Most seminaries did not offer this kind of class or require this kind of study 30 years ago. When I started putting on “missional” lenses to see the Scripture last week, I am convicted that our God is truly a “missio Dei” = missional God. And the Scripture is a calling for all His children to take part in His mission. Are you ready for action in following your missio Dei?
"Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message” (Mark 1:15). A common way to misunderstand prophecy, and especially the prophecy of the Revelation, is to suppose that it means prediction. But that is not the biblical use of the word. Prophets are not fortune tellers. The prophet is the person who declares, “Thus says the Lord.” He speaks what God is speaking. He brings God’s word into le immediate world of the present, insisting that it be heard here and now. The prophet says that God is speaking now, not yesterday; rod is speaking now, not tomorrow. It is not a past word that can be analyzed and then walked away from. It is not a future word that can be fantasized into escapist diversion. It is personal address now: ‘for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3, 22:10). “Near” means “at hand.” Not far off in the future but immediately before us; only our unbelief, or ignorance, or timid hesitancy separate us from it. Jesus also announced the immediacy of the prophetic word when he preached “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). St. John’s “near” and Jesus’ “at hand” are the same root word prophetic word eliminates the distance between God’s speaking and our learning. If we make the prophetic word a predictive word we are procrastinating, putting distance between ourselves and the application of the word, putting off dealing with it until some future date. This is what God intended for His revelation.
I have been meditating on the Kingdom of God in the past two weeks. Mission is about pronouncing the coming of the Kingdom of God since the King has already come. Matthew made it clear on this point as he recalled what his Master proclaimed, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt 28:18-19). The authority in heaven and earth represents the supreme reign of God. The resurrected Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Kingdom of God has arrived. We are the witnesses of this kingdom. God wants us to proclaim the reign of God on earth even though the ultimate maturation of this Kingdom is not here yet.
The model prayer that Jesus taught to his disciples also pointed to this spiritual reality, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matt 6:9-10). This is not a prophecy about something that is to come. It is a proclamation of a spiritual reality that has already taken place.
We make disciples not because we feel that it is a good idea. We do so because of our submission to the reign of Christ who is our King of kings. On a contrary, when we fail to do it, it is a deliberate rebellion against His reign or kingship in our lives. We are called to walk and talk like ambassador of this new Kingdom. Only when we recognize the kingship of our Lord Jesus in our own lives by obedience, we will not make disciples of all nations even with the power and resources vested in us.
With love in His kingdom,
Lawrence
Friday, February 19, 2010
Devotional 190210
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. There is so much to catch up and deal with after the merging of two organizations. Numerous emails, phone calls and meetings have been dedicated to iron out our differences. It is like martial adjustment between two persons, who are so different in background and personality, trying to become one in marriage. There are many questions and suspicions on why other party or team does not do according to the way we do? It indeed requires divine intervention for two teams to truly become one. Please pray for our unity in Christ.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:44-47). John Calvin, preaching to his congregation in Geneva, Switzerland, pointed out to his parishioners that we must develop better and deeper concepts of happiness from those held by the world which makes a happy life to consist in “ease, honors, and great wealth.”
Psalm 128 helps us do that. Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way. The experts on the world hunger problem say that there is enough to go around right now. We don’t have a production problem. We have the agricultural capability to produce enough food. We have the transportation technology to distribute the food. But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.
I agree that our happiness is defined by the world. One of the main things that we should not conform to the world is the standard of happiness. Without we know it we have picked up what the world tells us about the secret of happiness: to possess more wealth and more fame. Mass media bombards us with the glamorous and happy pictures of movie star and celebrities, as though they held the secret of happiness. Our children want to become rich and famous because the Media tells them that this is the goal of life. Is it really the case? Most parents do not have any complain on this kind of influence. They use this standard as motivation for education, “if you have better education, you will become rich and famous like those celebrities on TV. Therefore study harder.”
Christians are not immune from this kind of worldly temptation. Many will avoid any Biblical teaching on simple lifestyle or self-denial as extreme or unrealistic ideal. They attend church but not necessarily endorse wholeheartedly to the Word of God. Giving one self and money for example, are direct opposite to the goal of worldly happiness: rich and famous. But at the end of the day, their lives are not happy nor fulfilled even though they try. Moreover, they cease to become light and salt of the world. The world cannot be a better place when even the church conforms to the endless pursuit of materialistic wealth and economic manipulation of the poor. Before we condemn the world for their sins, we Christians need to confess our sins and repent from our worldly lifestyle and greed problem. Have mercy on us O Lord!
Love you with the passion of Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. There is so much to catch up and deal with after the merging of two organizations. Numerous emails, phone calls and meetings have been dedicated to iron out our differences. It is like martial adjustment between two persons, who are so different in background and personality, trying to become one in marriage. There are many questions and suspicions on why other party or team does not do according to the way we do? It indeed requires divine intervention for two teams to truly become one. Please pray for our unity in Christ.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:44-47). John Calvin, preaching to his congregation in Geneva, Switzerland, pointed out to his parishioners that we must develop better and deeper concepts of happiness from those held by the world which makes a happy life to consist in “ease, honors, and great wealth.”
Psalm 128 helps us do that. Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way. The experts on the world hunger problem say that there is enough to go around right now. We don’t have a production problem. We have the agricultural capability to produce enough food. We have the transportation technology to distribute the food. But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.
I agree that our happiness is defined by the world. One of the main things that we should not conform to the world is the standard of happiness. Without we know it we have picked up what the world tells us about the secret of happiness: to possess more wealth and more fame. Mass media bombards us with the glamorous and happy pictures of movie star and celebrities, as though they held the secret of happiness. Our children want to become rich and famous because the Media tells them that this is the goal of life. Is it really the case? Most parents do not have any complain on this kind of influence. They use this standard as motivation for education, “if you have better education, you will become rich and famous like those celebrities on TV. Therefore study harder.”
Christians are not immune from this kind of worldly temptation. Many will avoid any Biblical teaching on simple lifestyle or self-denial as extreme or unrealistic ideal. They attend church but not necessarily endorse wholeheartedly to the Word of God. Giving one self and money for example, are direct opposite to the goal of worldly happiness: rich and famous. But at the end of the day, their lives are not happy nor fulfilled even though they try. Moreover, they cease to become light and salt of the world. The world cannot be a better place when even the church conforms to the endless pursuit of materialistic wealth and economic manipulation of the poor. Before we condemn the world for their sins, we Christians need to confess our sins and repent from our worldly lifestyle and greed problem. Have mercy on us O Lord!
Love you with the passion of Christ,
Lawrence
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Devotional 160210
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I am glad the fog is gradually lifted, and the whole nature seems to come alive again under the sun. Life involves different seasons; we may appreciate some changes in life but not the other. But no matter how seasons of life may change, His love remains unchanged. We need to hold on to this fact so that we can press on in life, no matter how good or bad our experience may become. Amen?
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies (1 Cor 13:3-8a Message).
If I, deeply in love with another, begin describing with passionate appreciation what has been unnoticed or ignored by everyone else for years, some people around me are sure to dismiss me, “Love is blind.” They mean that love diminishes my capacity to see what is actually there so that fantasy, tailor-made to fit my desires, can be projected on another and thus make him or her acceptable as lover. The cynical follow-up is that if this did not happen, if I saw the other truly, I would never get involved. Why? It is because everyone is, in fact, quite unlovely, either visibly or invisibly, or, in some particularly unfortunate cases, both. Love doesn’t see truth but creates illusions and incapacitates us for dealing with the hard-edged realities of life.
But the popular saying, as popular sayings so often are, is wrong. It is hate that is blind. It is habit, condescension, and cynicism that are blind. Love opens eyes. Love enables the eyes to see what has been there all along but was overlooked in haste or indifference. Love corrects astigmatism so that what was distorted in selfishness is now received accurately and appreciatively. Love cures shortsightedness so that the blur of the distant other is now in wondrous focuses. Love cures farsightedness so that opportunities for intimacy are no longer blurred threats but blessed invitations. Love looks at the one who had no “form or attractiveness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” and sees there the “fairest of the sons of men … anointed with the oil of gladness above your fellows,”
If we could see the other as he is, as she is, there is no one we would not see as “fairest … all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.” Love penetrates the defenses that have been built up to protect against rejection and scorn and belittlement, and it sees life created by God for love. We are created to be target of God’s love, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” (John 3:16a). We are lovely in God’s sight simply because God did not allow hate to distort His perception of His children. And He allows love to dictate His acts and plans for mankind. In the same way, God wants His children to love one another just as the way He loves them. It may take a life time to put love into practice. But it takes daily reflection and appreciation of His perfect love for us, so that we know what love really is (correct our misconception about love). The Holy Spirit will then guide and empower us to put His love into daily action, if we are willing to submit to His Word despite of our human weaknesses.
Love you in according to His plan,
Lawrence
Good morning. I am glad the fog is gradually lifted, and the whole nature seems to come alive again under the sun. Life involves different seasons; we may appreciate some changes in life but not the other. But no matter how seasons of life may change, His love remains unchanged. We need to hold on to this fact so that we can press on in life, no matter how good or bad our experience may become. Amen?
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies (1 Cor 13:3-8a Message).
If I, deeply in love with another, begin describing with passionate appreciation what has been unnoticed or ignored by everyone else for years, some people around me are sure to dismiss me, “Love is blind.” They mean that love diminishes my capacity to see what is actually there so that fantasy, tailor-made to fit my desires, can be projected on another and thus make him or her acceptable as lover. The cynical follow-up is that if this did not happen, if I saw the other truly, I would never get involved. Why? It is because everyone is, in fact, quite unlovely, either visibly or invisibly, or, in some particularly unfortunate cases, both. Love doesn’t see truth but creates illusions and incapacitates us for dealing with the hard-edged realities of life.
But the popular saying, as popular sayings so often are, is wrong. It is hate that is blind. It is habit, condescension, and cynicism that are blind. Love opens eyes. Love enables the eyes to see what has been there all along but was overlooked in haste or indifference. Love corrects astigmatism so that what was distorted in selfishness is now received accurately and appreciatively. Love cures shortsightedness so that the blur of the distant other is now in wondrous focuses. Love cures farsightedness so that opportunities for intimacy are no longer blurred threats but blessed invitations. Love looks at the one who had no “form or attractiveness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” and sees there the “fairest of the sons of men … anointed with the oil of gladness above your fellows,”
If we could see the other as he is, as she is, there is no one we would not see as “fairest … all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.” Love penetrates the defenses that have been built up to protect against rejection and scorn and belittlement, and it sees life created by God for love. We are created to be target of God’s love, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” (John 3:16a). We are lovely in God’s sight simply because God did not allow hate to distort His perception of His children. And He allows love to dictate His acts and plans for mankind. In the same way, God wants His children to love one another just as the way He loves them. It may take a life time to put love into practice. But it takes daily reflection and appreciation of His perfect love for us, so that we know what love really is (correct our misconception about love). The Holy Spirit will then guide and empower us to put His love into daily action, if we are willing to submit to His Word despite of our human weaknesses.
Love you in according to His plan,
Lawrence
Friday, February 12, 2010
Devotional 120210
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Happy Chinese New Year to you and your household. Thanks for your prayer and by God’s grace I finally slept through the night (I guess new born baby properly need to make sleeping adjustment like our jetlag). Having enough sleep or rest makes a whole lot difference in our daily effectiveness of life. I just could not sit still to read or meditate without falling asleep in the last couples of days. Praise God that my biological clock is adjusting well so far.
Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalm 2:10-12). For Christians, “political” acquires extensive biblical associations and dimensions. So rather than look for another word untainted by corruption and evil, it is important to use it just as it is so that by it grace. The people who warn that “religion and politics don’t mix” certainly know what they are talking about. The mix has resulted in no end of ills – crusades, inquisitions, witch hunts, exploitation. All the same, God says, “Mix them.” But be very careful how you mix them. The only safe way is in prayer. It is both unbiblical and unreal to divide life into the activities of religion and politics, or into the realms of sacred and profane. But how do we get them together without putting one into the unscrupulous hands of the other, politics using religion or religion using politics, when what we want is a true mixture, politics becoming religious and religion becoming political? Prayer is the only means that is adequate for the great end of getting these polarities in dynamic relation. The psalms are our most extensive source documents showing prayer in action.
It is very sensitive for our missionaries to serve in countries like Myanmar and Cambodia; political corruption and bribery are like basic fabric of their social structure. When they encourage Christians to make impact in their countries as light and salt, these missionaries need to teach them how to handle these social corruptions that directly hinder the healthy development of their culture and society. If you have money, you can easily pass the public College Examination, and buy yourself into any University. You can even buy yourself a “Five Stars” General position in the Army (The Prime Minister is 7 Stars General). Police randomly stop drivers on the road to check whether they have renewed different kinds of licenses. Their onsite payment did not necessarily mean license’s renewal. It just gave you a “one time pass” until you encounter another police check point. If you do not “maintain good relationship” with the government officials, church or Christian organization could never be approved for religious license to operate. This is their political system. You can either apply your official license through some “connection and means,” or you operate illegally. How should missionaries or Christians operate in such environment and make “appropriate” decision? It definitely requires spiritual discernment from the Holy Spirit to serve in those countries.
I am sure Christians in this country also have their share of challenges. We need to know the rule of the games; what is politically correct and incorrect? How should we make impact or change public policy through “proper” channels? It may not have money transaction, but it does take spiritual discernment, network of relationship and political sensitivity in the process. Sometimes, line is so fine for us to maintain the balance being as "shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16b). Have a blessed weekend and a happy Chinese New Year!
Love you in His Holiness,
Lawrence
Good morning. Happy Chinese New Year to you and your household. Thanks for your prayer and by God’s grace I finally slept through the night (I guess new born baby properly need to make sleeping adjustment like our jetlag). Having enough sleep or rest makes a whole lot difference in our daily effectiveness of life. I just could not sit still to read or meditate without falling asleep in the last couples of days. Praise God that my biological clock is adjusting well so far.
Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalm 2:10-12). For Christians, “political” acquires extensive biblical associations and dimensions. So rather than look for another word untainted by corruption and evil, it is important to use it just as it is so that by it grace. The people who warn that “religion and politics don’t mix” certainly know what they are talking about. The mix has resulted in no end of ills – crusades, inquisitions, witch hunts, exploitation. All the same, God says, “Mix them.” But be very careful how you mix them. The only safe way is in prayer. It is both unbiblical and unreal to divide life into the activities of religion and politics, or into the realms of sacred and profane. But how do we get them together without putting one into the unscrupulous hands of the other, politics using religion or religion using politics, when what we want is a true mixture, politics becoming religious and religion becoming political? Prayer is the only means that is adequate for the great end of getting these polarities in dynamic relation. The psalms are our most extensive source documents showing prayer in action.
It is very sensitive for our missionaries to serve in countries like Myanmar and Cambodia; political corruption and bribery are like basic fabric of their social structure. When they encourage Christians to make impact in their countries as light and salt, these missionaries need to teach them how to handle these social corruptions that directly hinder the healthy development of their culture and society. If you have money, you can easily pass the public College Examination, and buy yourself into any University. You can even buy yourself a “Five Stars” General position in the Army (The Prime Minister is 7 Stars General). Police randomly stop drivers on the road to check whether they have renewed different kinds of licenses. Their onsite payment did not necessarily mean license’s renewal. It just gave you a “one time pass” until you encounter another police check point. If you do not “maintain good relationship” with the government officials, church or Christian organization could never be approved for religious license to operate. This is their political system. You can either apply your official license through some “connection and means,” or you operate illegally. How should missionaries or Christians operate in such environment and make “appropriate” decision? It definitely requires spiritual discernment from the Holy Spirit to serve in those countries.
I am sure Christians in this country also have their share of challenges. We need to know the rule of the games; what is politically correct and incorrect? How should we make impact or change public policy through “proper” channels? It may not have money transaction, but it does take spiritual discernment, network of relationship and political sensitivity in the process. Sometimes, line is so fine for us to maintain the balance being as "shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16b). Have a blessed weekend and a happy Chinese New Year!
Love you in His Holiness,
Lawrence
Friday, December 11, 2009
Devotional 111209
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good afternoon. I had started my journal at 8:40 am and could not finish until 12:10 pm. It was meeting after meeting in the entire morning, but they are all fruitful and meaningful for the Kingdom of God. Praise the Lord! I hope this devotional will reach you before your lunch break, so that you will have more time to meditate on it and over the weekend.
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Individuality is the shell of the personal life. Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child and rightly so; but if we mistake individuality for the personal life, we will remain isolated. The shell of individuality is God's created natural covering for the protection of the personal life; but individuality must go in order that the personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality humiliates human nature for itself.
The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else. If you say - "I cannot believe," it is because individuality is in the road; individuality never can believe. Personality cannot help believing. Watch yourself when the Spirit of God is at work. He pushes you to the margins of your individuality, and you have either to say - "I shan't," or to surrender, to break the shell of individuality and let the personal life emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing. The thing in you that will not be reconciled to your brother is your individuality. God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself He cannot. "Let him deny himself" - deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow.
We are living in a culture that uplifts independence and self-assertiveness. As a result, we harvest arrogance, indulgence and complacence. When we focus so much on our individuality and self actualization, we will not consider self sacrifice and self-denial; they are something essential as we want to follow Christ or grow in Christ. Have mercy on us O Lord. We are living in such a culture and being corrupted or swallowed up by such trend. Many of us will not be able to tell how our lifestyle has been corrupted within the sphere of this mega-trend of self-assertiveness. Only when we humble ourselves before God, and allow His enlightenment come upon us, we will not be able to see our corrupted nature or our complacence.
Again and again, the Bible calls us to seek the enlightenment from above so that we can really see who we are and where we are in terms of our relationship with God. Paul said, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (Eph 1:17-18)…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" (3:16-17). Apostle John inspired by the Holy Spirit warned the church of Laodicea, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Rev. 3:18). Ask the Lord to open our eyes, so that we can really see our problem and accept His work of reformation.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Good afternoon. I had started my journal at 8:40 am and could not finish until 12:10 pm. It was meeting after meeting in the entire morning, but they are all fruitful and meaningful for the Kingdom of God. Praise the Lord! I hope this devotional will reach you before your lunch break, so that you will have more time to meditate on it and over the weekend.
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). Individuality is the shell of the personal life. Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child and rightly so; but if we mistake individuality for the personal life, we will remain isolated. The shell of individuality is God's created natural covering for the protection of the personal life; but individuality must go in order that the personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality humiliates human nature for itself.
The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else. If you say - "I cannot believe," it is because individuality is in the road; individuality never can believe. Personality cannot help believing. Watch yourself when the Spirit of God is at work. He pushes you to the margins of your individuality, and you have either to say - "I shan't," or to surrender, to break the shell of individuality and let the personal life emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing. The thing in you that will not be reconciled to your brother is your individuality. God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself He cannot. "Let him deny himself" - deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow.
We are living in a culture that uplifts independence and self-assertiveness. As a result, we harvest arrogance, indulgence and complacence. When we focus so much on our individuality and self actualization, we will not consider self sacrifice and self-denial; they are something essential as we want to follow Christ or grow in Christ. Have mercy on us O Lord. We are living in such a culture and being corrupted or swallowed up by such trend. Many of us will not be able to tell how our lifestyle has been corrupted within the sphere of this mega-trend of self-assertiveness. Only when we humble ourselves before God, and allow His enlightenment come upon us, we will not be able to see our corrupted nature or our complacence.
Again and again, the Bible calls us to seek the enlightenment from above so that we can really see who we are and where we are in terms of our relationship with God. Paul said, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (Eph 1:17-18)…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" (3:16-17). Apostle John inspired by the Holy Spirit warned the church of Laodicea, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Rev. 3:18). Ask the Lord to open our eyes, so that we can really see our problem and accept His work of reformation.
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Devotional 220909
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Thanks again for many of your good wishes for my birthday. I can’t believe I am entering into the golden age. My body certainly shows it; I have less energy than before; I can’t carry heavy load; I easily loss my short-term memory but clearly remember the good old days. Lately, I have developed some itchy rashes on my two arms and gradually spread to my shoulders and legs. It should be a kind of allergy but no medicine helps so far. I guess this is part of aging. I learn to accept it with thanksgiving. It reminds me to focus more on daily renewal of my mind, even though my body is deteriorating, which is a natural cycle of life. Praise the Lord I am still alive!
"You call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am" (John 13:13). To have a master and to be mastered is not the same thing. To have a master means that there is one who knows me better than I know myself, one who is closer than a friend, one who fathoms the remotest deep hole of my heart and satisfies it, one who has brought me into the secure sense that he has met and solved every perplexity and problem of my mind. To have a master is this and nothing less - "One is your Master, even Christ."
Our Lord never enforces obedience; He does not take means to make me do what He wants. At certain times I wish God would master me and make me do the thing, but He will not; in other moods I wish He would leave me alone, but He does not.
"You call me Master and Lord" - but is He? Master and Lord have little place in our vocabulary, we prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, Healer. The only word to describe mastership in experience is love and we know very little about love as God reveals it. This is proved by the way we use the word obey. In the Bible obedience is based on the relationship of equals, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not God's servant, He was His Son. "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience . . ." If our idea is that we are being mastered, it is a proof that we have no master; if that is our attitude to Jesus, we are far away from the relationship He wants. He wants us in the relationship in which He is easily Master without our conscious knowledge of it, all we know is that we are His to obey.
Since our Lord does not force us to obey, we have a tendency to ignore Him or even indulge in our own desire to rebel against Him. God respects the freedom that He gives to mankind as a token of His love. He will not make us His slaves. He wants to be our friend, “I no longer call you servants or slaves, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). A servant does not know his master’s plan let alone participating in his plan. A servant just follows instruction or command. But this is not the way God treats us. He wants us to have a say in His master plan – that’s why sometimes we choose an easy way out or give excuse not to do His great commission and greatest commandment. Have mercy on us O Lord…help us to be your faithful servant and friend –willfully do your will to please you.
Love you according to His new commandment,
Lawrence
Good morning. Thanks again for many of your good wishes for my birthday. I can’t believe I am entering into the golden age. My body certainly shows it; I have less energy than before; I can’t carry heavy load; I easily loss my short-term memory but clearly remember the good old days. Lately, I have developed some itchy rashes on my two arms and gradually spread to my shoulders and legs. It should be a kind of allergy but no medicine helps so far. I guess this is part of aging. I learn to accept it with thanksgiving. It reminds me to focus more on daily renewal of my mind, even though my body is deteriorating, which is a natural cycle of life. Praise the Lord I am still alive!
"You call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am" (John 13:13). To have a master and to be mastered is not the same thing. To have a master means that there is one who knows me better than I know myself, one who is closer than a friend, one who fathoms the remotest deep hole of my heart and satisfies it, one who has brought me into the secure sense that he has met and solved every perplexity and problem of my mind. To have a master is this and nothing less - "One is your Master, even Christ."
Our Lord never enforces obedience; He does not take means to make me do what He wants. At certain times I wish God would master me and make me do the thing, but He will not; in other moods I wish He would leave me alone, but He does not.
"You call me Master and Lord" - but is He? Master and Lord have little place in our vocabulary, we prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, Healer. The only word to describe mastership in experience is love and we know very little about love as God reveals it. This is proved by the way we use the word obey. In the Bible obedience is based on the relationship of equals, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not God's servant, He was His Son. "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience . . ." If our idea is that we are being mastered, it is a proof that we have no master; if that is our attitude to Jesus, we are far away from the relationship He wants. He wants us in the relationship in which He is easily Master without our conscious knowledge of it, all we know is that we are His to obey.
Since our Lord does not force us to obey, we have a tendency to ignore Him or even indulge in our own desire to rebel against Him. God respects the freedom that He gives to mankind as a token of His love. He will not make us His slaves. He wants to be our friend, “I no longer call you servants or slaves, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). A servant does not know his master’s plan let alone participating in his plan. A servant just follows instruction or command. But this is not the way God treats us. He wants us to have a say in His master plan – that’s why sometimes we choose an easy way out or give excuse not to do His great commission and greatest commandment. Have mercy on us O Lord…help us to be your faithful servant and friend –willfully do your will to please you.
Love you according to His new commandment,
Lawrence
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