Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is nice to have a day off on Martin Luther King’s birthday. And this day is particularly historical as our country is about to install the first African American President. No matter how our view or opinion may be different toward this new President, the Bible teaches us to respect and pray for leaders above us, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men…Show proper respect to everyone; love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king/President (1 Peter 2:15-17)…I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings/President and all those in authority (1 Tim 2:1-2),” because it is the God of history who put him in that office. And I sincerely pray that our new President will encounter our Lord Jesus Christ in a fresh new way, while he serves this enormous task with trembling and fear.
An interesting description in Genesis 15:12 caused us to reflect upon the vision of God, “A horror of great darkness fell upon him…” Whenever God gives a vision to a saint, He puts him, as it were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint's duty is to be still and listen. There is a darkness which comes from excess of light, and then is the time to listen. This happened to Apostle Paul when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, where he planned to persecute the followers of Christ. He was blinded by the light of God and was in darkness for three days. During those days, I am sure Paul went through a lot of reflections and self evaluation. That encounter or vision of God totally shattered Paul’s theology and religiosity. He was a new person and his purpose of life completely transformed.
Genesis 16 is an illustration of listening to good advice when it is dark instead of waiting for God to send the light. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time. Never try and help God fulfill His word. Abraham went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all self-sufficiency was destroyed; there was no possibility left of relying on common-sense ways. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not of displeasure or depression. Never pump up joy and confidence, but stay upon God. Our Lord warned His children in Isaiah 50:10, 11 by saying, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, TRUST in the name of the Lord and RELY on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: you will lie down in torment.”
Have I any confidence in the flesh? Or have I got beyond all confidence in myself and in men and women of God; in books and prayers and ecstasies; and is my confidence placed now in God Himself, not in His blessings? "I am the Almighty God" - El-Shaddai, the Father-Mother God. The one thing for which we are all being disciplined is to know that God is real. As soon as God becomes real, other people become shadows. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God.
I pray that this “darkness” of God will come upon our new President, so that he will learn not to depend on his own wisdom and knowledge, but to rely on God who ultimately put him in office. If God’s willing, I pray that such darkness/vision of God will also come upon you and me, so that we will grow in our trust and obedience toward Him even more each day.
Love you by the mercy of God,
Lawrence
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Preaching at BACBC Mandarin Service
Thank God for giving me the opportunity to preach at the Mandarin service of BACBC this morning. This church sent out one of their members to Mexico City to support our GOI Missionary there. Praise the Lord for His provision, and His work in Karol's life. Please pray for her and her needs for 4 months.Another bonus was to have lunch with my former coworker at Cumberland, Amelia Sun and her husband, who is serving at BACBC right now.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Devotional 160109
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Many passengers expressed their heartfelt gratitude toward the two pilots, after their amazing landing of the US Air on Hudson River in New York yesterday. It was indeed the skill and smart decision of the pilot that saved the passengers of that flight. It was also amazing how a busy Hudson River would become an open runway for this huge airplane at that period of time. That’s why some thanked God for this miraculous timing. None can explain why that could happen. But for the passengers, they were glad to be alive and saved – I hoped this accident would become a life changing experience for those on board the flight; they would treasure their lives and re-evaluate their purpose of living. I hope we don’t need to wait for an accident like this to reconsider our life purpose. It would be a big regret if we fail to fully live out the purpose of life that God has intended for us. God is raising the same question as He did to Isaiah today, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:8b) How would you answer as you hear that call?
When we speak of the call of God, we are apt to forget the most important feature, and that is the nature of the One Who calls. There is the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, the call of the great ice barriers, but these calls are only heard by the few. The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is within us. The call of God is the expression of God's Nature, not of our nature. There are messages or situations of the call of God providentially at work for us, which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threading of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God.
The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my characters and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah's soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.
I wondered how many lives had been altered, as the passengers stood on the wings of the plane on Hudson River, puzzling of their amazing survival. I remembered how my life was altered after I realized that God had spared me from a deadly boat crash; it was when I dedicated my life to God at the bank of Pearl River. I had no regret ever since, and God has been kindly shaping and using my life for His purpose. You will have no regret as you ‘risk’ your lives in God’s hand. He will definitely make you as blessings to many…
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Good morning. Many passengers expressed their heartfelt gratitude toward the two pilots, after their amazing landing of the US Air on Hudson River in New York yesterday. It was indeed the skill and smart decision of the pilot that saved the passengers of that flight. It was also amazing how a busy Hudson River would become an open runway for this huge airplane at that period of time. That’s why some thanked God for this miraculous timing. None can explain why that could happen. But for the passengers, they were glad to be alive and saved – I hoped this accident would become a life changing experience for those on board the flight; they would treasure their lives and re-evaluate their purpose of living. I hope we don’t need to wait for an accident like this to reconsider our life purpose. It would be a big regret if we fail to fully live out the purpose of life that God has intended for us. God is raising the same question as He did to Isaiah today, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:8b) How would you answer as you hear that call?
When we speak of the call of God, we are apt to forget the most important feature, and that is the nature of the One Who calls. There is the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, the call of the great ice barriers, but these calls are only heard by the few. The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is within us. The call of God is the expression of God's Nature, not of our nature. There are messages or situations of the call of God providentially at work for us, which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threading of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God.
The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my characters and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah's soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.
I wondered how many lives had been altered, as the passengers stood on the wings of the plane on Hudson River, puzzling of their amazing survival. I remembered how my life was altered after I realized that God had spared me from a deadly boat crash; it was when I dedicated my life to God at the bank of Pearl River. I had no regret ever since, and God has been kindly shaping and using my life for His purpose. You will have no regret as you ‘risk’ your lives in God’s hand. He will definitely make you as blessings to many…
Love you in Christ,
Lawrence
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Devotional 150109
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Good morning. Praise God for this wonderful day. Praise God for the way He creates us that we can feel the fresh air, sunshine, smell the fragrance of nature, appreciate the beauty that He designed for us to enjoy…However all these wonderful things on earth will become strangely dim when compare to the glory and beauty of the Lord. If we are fascinated by the wonder of His earthly creation, I believe we have yet explored the wonder of His spiritual realm. Even if God allows us to perceive His eternal glory like the way John experienced and talked about in Revelation, we will become speechless or beyond words to describe. Many Christians throughout centuries shared the same experience; they could not find the right word or vocabulary to describe what they saw in prayer or in the spiritual realm. Even when they tried, they took the risk to be perceived as cult or deviated teaching. They were similar to those “after-life or near death” experiences that many found it hard to describe.
We shouldn’t demand any extraordinary experiences from the Lord even though we desire to enter the glory of the Lord. This is the gift from God. Do you remember how the Lord replied to two disciples who requested to sit next to Him in His Kingdom? "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father" (Matt 20:22-23). In the same token, it is God who has perfect wisdom to grant His gifts to us according to His will. We can only ask ourselves to imitate Christ on earth and desire to emerge into Him like fish desires to enter into ocean daily.
When he explained the meaning of baptism to the Corinthians, Paul said, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection" (Romans 6:4-5). No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral" - the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," - a death that has only one resurrection - a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life; it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him.
Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying - "baptized into His death."
Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance - "Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God."
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.
Let’s remind one another to abide in Him at all time, and put our old self to death, so that the resurrection power of Christ will transform us into the kind of being He desires.
Love you by the power of His resurrection,
Lawrence
Good morning. Praise God for this wonderful day. Praise God for the way He creates us that we can feel the fresh air, sunshine, smell the fragrance of nature, appreciate the beauty that He designed for us to enjoy…However all these wonderful things on earth will become strangely dim when compare to the glory and beauty of the Lord. If we are fascinated by the wonder of His earthly creation, I believe we have yet explored the wonder of His spiritual realm. Even if God allows us to perceive His eternal glory like the way John experienced and talked about in Revelation, we will become speechless or beyond words to describe. Many Christians throughout centuries shared the same experience; they could not find the right word or vocabulary to describe what they saw in prayer or in the spiritual realm. Even when they tried, they took the risk to be perceived as cult or deviated teaching. They were similar to those “after-life or near death” experiences that many found it hard to describe.
We shouldn’t demand any extraordinary experiences from the Lord even though we desire to enter the glory of the Lord. This is the gift from God. Do you remember how the Lord replied to two disciples who requested to sit next to Him in His Kingdom? "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father" (Matt 20:22-23). In the same token, it is God who has perfect wisdom to grant His gifts to us according to His will. We can only ask ourselves to imitate Christ on earth and desire to emerge into Him like fish desires to enter into ocean daily.
When he explained the meaning of baptism to the Corinthians, Paul said, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection" (Romans 6:4-5). No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral" - the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," - a death that has only one resurrection - a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life; it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him.
Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying - "baptized into His death."
Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance - "Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God."
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.
Let’s remind one another to abide in Him at all time, and put our old self to death, so that the resurrection power of Christ will transform us into the kind of being He desires.
Love you by the power of His resurrection,
Lawrence
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Devotional 140109
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. God is at work and He is at work all the time. The question is whether we are aware of His work among us. We don’t listen because of our pre-occupation by so many concerns in life. We assume God will only speak to us when we open the Bible or when we pray. Yes, we are more conscious of God’s small voice when we open the Bible or set our mind to pray. But God is at work and continue to communicate to us if we care to listen. The word ‘disposition’ is so essential for our spiritual sensitivity. It means our ‘outlook, character or orientation’ in life. It implies a decision on our part to choose God over other things as our main and primary desire. The goal of our spiritual formation is to truly let God be the Lord of our lives, or let the life of Christ be fully form within us.
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). God did not address the call to Isaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, "Who will go for us?" The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God's call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition. "Many are called but few are chosen" (Matt 20:16), that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, "Who will go for us?"
It is not a question of God singling out a man or woman and saying, "Now, you go." God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, "Here am I, send me." Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men and women with every power wide-awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something similar to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, "Here am I; send me."
Our Triune God always speak to one another as He sees the rebellion and the suffering of mankind, “Who will go for us?” God is not helpless just as we are. He prefers to involve His people to demonstrate His love and plan for mankind. God is waiting for those who ‘desire to be chosen’ to carry out His will in human history. God is always at work. He desires His children to co-labor with Him as well…Do you want to be His chosen one?
Love you in accordance to His will,
Lawrence
Good morning. God is at work and He is at work all the time. The question is whether we are aware of His work among us. We don’t listen because of our pre-occupation by so many concerns in life. We assume God will only speak to us when we open the Bible or when we pray. Yes, we are more conscious of God’s small voice when we open the Bible or set our mind to pray. But God is at work and continue to communicate to us if we care to listen. The word ‘disposition’ is so essential for our spiritual sensitivity. It means our ‘outlook, character or orientation’ in life. It implies a decision on our part to choose God over other things as our main and primary desire. The goal of our spiritual formation is to truly let God be the Lord of our lives, or let the life of Christ be fully form within us.
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). God did not address the call to Isaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, "Who will go for us?" The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God's call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition. "Many are called but few are chosen" (Matt 20:16), that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, "Who will go for us?"
It is not a question of God singling out a man or woman and saying, "Now, you go." God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, "Here am I, send me." Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men and women with every power wide-awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something similar to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, "Here am I; send me."
Our Triune God always speak to one another as He sees the rebellion and the suffering of mankind, “Who will go for us?” God is not helpless just as we are. He prefers to involve His people to demonstrate His love and plan for mankind. God is waiting for those who ‘desire to be chosen’ to carry out His will in human history. God is always at work. He desires His children to co-labor with Him as well…Do you want to be His chosen one?
Love you in accordance to His will,
Lawrence
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Devotional 130109
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. The weather is amazingly warm even though this may be the abnormal consequence of global warming problem. Some one asked me last night whether global warming is one of the sign of the end time. We are in the end time and we have enough signs to tell us that Jesus will come back at any time. Let’s not concern so much on the exact timing of His return. If Jesus did not want to disclose His timing, let’s not waste our time to predict as though we know better than our Lord Jesus. God wants us to be prepared at all time for His second coming. The way to do it is to draw close to the Lord. We will find more assurance of His presence when we enter into solitude time with Christ. Sometimes God will also use suffering to draw us closer to Him
When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to explain His Truth to us. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit as Jesus had promised, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can explain nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.
If we don’t draw close to our Lord, we will naturally focus on our environment, which will only make us more fearful and confused. Let’s not give foothold to Satan by yielding to our worry, especially during this difficult down time of our economy. Instead, remember what the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:7-10, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
Love you in the Lord,
Lawrence
Good morning. The weather is amazingly warm even though this may be the abnormal consequence of global warming problem. Some one asked me last night whether global warming is one of the sign of the end time. We are in the end time and we have enough signs to tell us that Jesus will come back at any time. Let’s not concern so much on the exact timing of His return. If Jesus did not want to disclose His timing, let’s not waste our time to predict as though we know better than our Lord Jesus. God wants us to be prepared at all time for His second coming. The way to do it is to draw close to the Lord. We will find more assurance of His presence when we enter into solitude time with Christ. Sometimes God will also use suffering to draw us closer to Him
When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to explain His Truth to us. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit as Jesus had promised, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Holy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can explain nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.
If we don’t draw close to our Lord, we will naturally focus on our environment, which will only make us more fearful and confused. Let’s not give foothold to Satan by yielding to our worry, especially during this difficult down time of our economy. Instead, remember what the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:7-10, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
Love you in the Lord,
Lawrence
Monday, January 12, 2009
Devotional 120109
Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I am taking a day off from my busy schedule ever since I came back from my last trip. There are so much I need to follow up at work that I need to rest in Him in order to recharge my inner strength. We all need to take a break in order to regain focus and energy. Otherwise, we will easily fall into Satan's temptation while we are in auto-pilot mode.
The Bible says, "He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything" (Mark 4:34). Our Solitude with Christ is essential to our well being as His disciples. Jesus does not take us alone and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we can understand them. Other lives are parables. God is making us spell out our own souls. It is slow work, so slow that it takes God all time and eternity to make a man and woman after His own purpose. The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We do not know envy when we see it, or laziness, or pride. Jesus reveals to us all that this body has been harboring before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look in our own characters with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves; it is the last arrogance to go. The only One who really understands us is God. The greatest curse in spiritual life is arrogance or pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we shall never say - "Oh, I am so unworthy," because we shall know we are, beyond the possibility of stating it. As long as we are not quite sure that we are unworthy, God will keep narrowing us in until He gets us alone. Wherever there is any element of pride or arrogance, Jesus cannot explain a thing. He will take us through the disappointment of a wounded pride of intellect, through disappointment of heart. He will reveal excessive affection - things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. We listen to many things in sermon or Bible classes, but they are not an exposition to us yet. They will be when God gets us alone over them.
Satan will do whatever to distract us from spending solitude time with God. He will give us all kinds of excuse or justification not to do so. We believe our own justification: “I really don’t have time to do so…even if I do, I can’t focus or get anything out of it. I am a doer but not a thinker. I don’t like to read books. I will fall asleep when I start meditating. I think I receive enough spiritual feeding by attending church service and fellowship. I don’t need to spend time to be alone with God. It is kind of scary and uncomfortable to do so anyway…” If those justifications sound familiar to you, they are the temptations of Satan that nurture your pride as though you know what you need better than what God says you need. The more you surrender to those excuses, the more you are yielding your soul to Satan and suffer in his endless manipulations. Moreover, he will use you to stumble other believers and pre-Christian friends as a result; young Christians will follow your bad example and pre-Christians will not see the work of Christ in your life. Have mercy on us O Lord! Strengthen our daily walk with you so that we are enlightened to see who we are and what you desire for us to be today.
Love you because of the stubborn love of God,
Lawrence
Good morning. I am taking a day off from my busy schedule ever since I came back from my last trip. There are so much I need to follow up at work that I need to rest in Him in order to recharge my inner strength. We all need to take a break in order to regain focus and energy. Otherwise, we will easily fall into Satan's temptation while we are in auto-pilot mode.
The Bible says, "He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything" (Mark 4:34). Our Solitude with Christ is essential to our well being as His disciples. Jesus does not take us alone and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we can understand them. Other lives are parables. God is making us spell out our own souls. It is slow work, so slow that it takes God all time and eternity to make a man and woman after His own purpose. The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We do not know envy when we see it, or laziness, or pride. Jesus reveals to us all that this body has been harboring before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look in our own characters with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves; it is the last arrogance to go. The only One who really understands us is God. The greatest curse in spiritual life is arrogance or pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we shall never say - "Oh, I am so unworthy," because we shall know we are, beyond the possibility of stating it. As long as we are not quite sure that we are unworthy, God will keep narrowing us in until He gets us alone. Wherever there is any element of pride or arrogance, Jesus cannot explain a thing. He will take us through the disappointment of a wounded pride of intellect, through disappointment of heart. He will reveal excessive affection - things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. We listen to many things in sermon or Bible classes, but they are not an exposition to us yet. They will be when God gets us alone over them.
Satan will do whatever to distract us from spending solitude time with God. He will give us all kinds of excuse or justification not to do so. We believe our own justification: “I really don’t have time to do so…even if I do, I can’t focus or get anything out of it. I am a doer but not a thinker. I don’t like to read books. I will fall asleep when I start meditating. I think I receive enough spiritual feeding by attending church service and fellowship. I don’t need to spend time to be alone with God. It is kind of scary and uncomfortable to do so anyway…” If those justifications sound familiar to you, they are the temptations of Satan that nurture your pride as though you know what you need better than what God says you need. The more you surrender to those excuses, the more you are yielding your soul to Satan and suffer in his endless manipulations. Moreover, he will use you to stumble other believers and pre-Christian friends as a result; young Christians will follow your bad example and pre-Christians will not see the work of Christ in your life. Have mercy on us O Lord! Strengthen our daily walk with you so that we are enlightened to see who we are and what you desire for us to be today.
Love you because of the stubborn love of God,
Lawrence
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