Devotional 260509

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Praise God for a wonderful retreat that we had at Nevada City with brothers and sisters from CIBC Oakland. The weather and environment were so beautiful. I had a relaxing and enjoyable time to have fellowship with one another in Christ. Our last session at the retreat was to talk about 4 spiritual disciplines that are essential for abundant living. To Apostle Paul, these spiritual disciplines are fundamental exercises that we need to practice daily, “Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray unceasingly; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's Will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:15b-18). The Lord has spoken through Paul. And it is our choice to put them into practice both individually and as a Body, so that we find assurance to live in the Will of God each day. Amen? It so happened that Oswald Chambers also shared on one of these verses today. Let’s hear what our Lord had spoken to him…

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops reflective prayer. "Pray without ceasing," keep the childlike habit of reflective or contemplative prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer; He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? "Every one that asks receives." We say - "But . . . , but . . ." God answers prayer in the best way, not sometimes, but every time, although the immediate manifestation of the answer in the domain in which we want it may not always follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worth while for Him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.

To our Lord Jesus, prayer is a life line of communication between Him and God the Father. Unless He constantly focused on the work of His Father, Jesus would not be able to say, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these” (John 5:19-20). There are so many things try to distract our attention from God’s work in our lives. The challenge for us is to stay focus on Him through unceasing prayer or unceasing communication with God.

It may sound like a myth or too ideal to make it a reality, but it is doable to many saints throughout church history. It takes commitment and desire to build a habit of prayer with our ears and eyes, besides our mouth. Prayer is not to seek God’s help when we are in desperation only. Prayer is not to seek God’s guidance or provision when we are in needs. I totally agree that prayer is like breathe. We need to train the nature of our soul to desire communication with God through prayer just as the nature of our lung desires breathing fresh air. The ultimate goal is to let our Holy Spirit to be the CEO of our whole being, and train different departments of our body to submit under His command. You will be amazed how God may turn your life around when you stay focus on Him whenever and wherever you go. Let’s pray for one another on this spiritual discipline.

Love you in Christ,
Lawrence

Devotional 220509

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. When we sing “this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it,” we recognize the fact that our Lord is in control of our experience of each day. No matter how this day may bring you, you can rejoice in it because He has a plan to make you a much better person through it. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). Will you seek the Lord with all your heart today?

"That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:21). If you are going through a solitary way, read John 17, it will explain exactly why you are where you are - Jesus has prayed that you may be one with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or have you some other end for your life? Since you became a disciple you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

The purpose of God is not to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God, and this is revealed in John 17. There is one prayer God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus - "that they may be one, even as We are One." Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?

God is not concerned about our plans; He does not say - Do you want to go through this grief or this upset? He allows these things for His own purpose. The things that we are going through will either make us sweeter, better, nobler men and women; or they will make us more captious and fault-finding, more insistent upon our own way. The things that happen either make us monster, or they make us saints; it depends entirely upon the relationship we are in to God. If we say - "Thy will be done," we get the consolation of John 17, the consolation of knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom. When we understand what God is after we will not get mean and cynical. Jesus has prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far off it, and yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him, because Jesus has prayed that we may be.

As I grow older, I am becoming more convicted that God cares not so much about our comfort but our character. He intends to nurture our character by His own presence in our lives. He allows different kinds of experiences (either good or bad) to come upon us, so that they will test our character or stimulate us to be more Christ like. What make us more Christ like is to abide in Him at all times. Nothing can please God more than drawing close to God the Father as Christ did. This union with God has direct link to our relationship with fellow human beings. In another word, you will have an enjoyable life with others when you enjoy your life abiding in Christ.

Please pray for our weekend ministry. Loretta and I will be speaking at a retreat at Nevada City (near Lake Tahoe). We will be back on Monday afternoon.

Love you out of this union with Christ,
Lawrence

devotional 200509

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. We praise God for another beautiful day to be in His service. Remember. No matter where you ‘make your living,’ you are the servant of God. You are being placed in that corner of the earth for a reason. You may not aware of your purpose in where you work right now. All you need to do is to conduct your life in accordance to the Word of God that you know. By doing so, God will use you to be His vessel of grace and blessings to the people around you. If you lack of strength, you just call on the Holy Spirit to grant you more strength to live out your faith.

"By standing firm you will gain life" (Luke 21:19). When a man is born again, there is not the same forcefulness in his thinking or reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expression of the new life, to form the mind of Christ. "Acquire your soul with patience." Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance with the new life God has put within. We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are being made in Christ; we blame everything to the devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think of the way we react when we are stimulated or agitated.

There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance. Moods should never be removed by praying, moods should be handled by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods, which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual courage.

It seems to be one simple statement or spiritual principle. Yet, it takes us a lifetime to practice. By my own strength, I don’t think I can stand firm on God’s word. It is easy to preach the Word; it is definitely very difficult to live the Word. Our human nature normally rejects the Word. The Bible said, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11). God knows the limitation and distorted nature of ours, that’s why the Holy Spirit came to dwell among the followers of Christ – those who desire to be Christ like. Therefore, God will provide us timely guidance and empowerment to stand firm on His Word. God reminded us through Zechariah 4:6, “'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.” The Spirit of the Lord is powerful because He is the Almighty God. And this Awesome Power of God lives within us for one single purpose: “He may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph 3:16-17).

Once our inner being is strengthened by His Spirit, He will accomplish much greater things through us beyond our mind can ever imagine. Therefore, stand firm is not stand still. The more we grow in Christ, the stronger we stand firm on His Word. The reason why we need to stand firm is because we will be confronted by different challenges in life. Suffering or hardship is a norm in life, though we try hard to avoid it. No place on earth can give you problem free life or true security. The key is how you build your foundation of life. In another word, we, who choose to live in Bay Area, cannot avoid earthquake. The question is how we build a house that can withstand earthquake. To stand firm on His Word is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. It is difficult and time consuming to do so. But when “the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matt 7:25). God wants to help us stand firm on the ‘rock’ – the eternal Word of God.

Love you according to His Word,
Lawrence

Ps. I will have a whole day of Board meeting tomorrow. Therefore, I will not be able to send you my devotional. Please pray for those who fly in for this meeting.

devotional 190509

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It was so cold and foggy in Daly City but warm and sunny in Burlingame. Though I took a day off yesterday, I was fully occupied in running errands. I needed to help my foster child to move back home from Berkeley. Time really flies. My foster child has finished first year of college, and his brother will start college this fall. Praise God for giving us the opportunity to serve these two kids. Pray that the Lord will use them to bless many people to come. It was the love of God that inspired us to take care of them. And I believe God will use them to extend His love to even more people in days to come.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Romans 8:35) God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says - "I will be with him in trouble." It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man's life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are "more than conquerors in all these things." Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately relevant to our daily living; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our creativity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.

"Shall tribulation separate us from the love of God?" Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may - exhausting, annoying, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.

"Shall anguish separate us from the love of God?" - can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

"Shall famine separate us from the love of God?" - can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it - the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time.

Father God, I need this kind of will power and courage in the face of difficulty in life. This kind of will power is not something we born with nor shaped by life experiences. This spiritual resilience must be a gift from above; something that comes with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Sweet Holy Spirit, your presence is the sign of your love for me, because our Lord Jesus has promised that He will never forsake us no matter how the world may turn against us… We stand by and claim your promise because you are our faithful God.

Let’s turn our eyes to Jesus when life is stormy and unpredictable, not like a coward or as a form of escape, but for more courage in conquering Satan’s harassment and oppression. Amen?

Love you because of His relentless love for us,
Lawrence

Missions Carnavel of Go and Love

It was the first time when GO and Love ministry shared about their vision to the Body of Christ. Since this ministry is a sister organization with GOI, therefore, we offer our wholehearted and sincere support to their Vision sharing event. We praise God for using different organizations to fulfill His Great Commissions before His return. I pray that more Christians will give the Great Commission the highest priority in their lives. After all, this is what the purpose of our existence.

Preached at Golden Gate Reformed Church on Sunday

Praise God for the opportunityt to worship and preach at Golden Gate Reformed Church in San Francisco yesterday. Both the Cantonese and Mandarin congregations are full of potentials and the leadership shared the burden for community outreach and global missions as well. Some of the leaders had joined short term mission team with GOI before. May God continued to use this church as a vibrant witness for our Lord in San Francisco.

Devotional 150509

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good afternoon. My boss is back from Asia. That’s why I was fully occupied in the morning. I am glad we have a harmonious team in mobilizing churches for the global missions of God. There are so many unreached people in the world, but workers are so few and Christians are reluctant to step out by faith for the Great Commission. Pray that God will bring a great revival to churches across America, especially among Chinese Christians. God has given so much to us, yet we are holding back so much from Him.

"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" (Ephesians 1:18). Remember what you are saved for - that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time.

You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your tongue, and your brain and your nerves? If you are still the same miserable crosspatch, set on your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Engineer, He allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can leap over them properly - "By my God have I leaped over a wall." God will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of His. Peter says - "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you" (1 Peter 4:12). Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives God the chance to manifest Him self in your mortal flesh.

May God not find the complains in us any more, but may He find us full of spiritual courage and athleticism, ready to face anything He brings. We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all dictation to God vanishes. Our Lord never dictated to His Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. When we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured out wine to feed and nourish others.

Unless we are broken or totally surrender to God, we will find many excuses or alternatives to detour from the Will of God for our lives. We are too complicated, which is the cause of our frustrations and complains. Simplicity produces in us a beauty of innocence…it brings us joy and fulfillment. No wonder our Lord said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3). Little children can find joy in simple little thing, as long as they have parents around. It is usually the adults who make an innocent child to become materialistic and complicated. Have mercy on us O Lord…help us to be more pure and simple, because our Lord has promised: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt 5:8).

Love you with a pure heart,
Lawrence