Family Fun at Yosemite

We were having some family fun at Angel Camp near Yosemite. This is the first trip of our foster kids to this beatuiful national park. We shared a lot in the car and having a great worship/fellowship time together. Priase the Lord!

Devotional 210809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is a blessing to have beautiful sunshine in Burlingame; this gives me a lot of incentives to go to work from my foggy home in Daly City. Everyday is a new privilege in serving God. People may come and go. But our Lord remains eternally. Praise the Lord!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). The New Testament notices things which from our standards do not seem to count. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," literally should be - Blessed are the paupers or homeless - an exceedingly commonplace thing! The preaching of to-day is apt to emphasize strength of will, beauty of character - the things that are easily noticed. The phrase we hear so often, Decide for Christ, is an emphasis on something Our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him - a very different thing. At the basis of Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace. The thing I am blessed in is my poverty. If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, then Jesus says - Blessed are you, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom. I cannot enter His Kingdom as a good man or woman, I can only enter it as a complete pauper or very poor person.

The true character of the loveliness that tells for God is always unconscious. Conscious influence is arrogant and un-Christian. If I say - I wonder if I am of any use - I instantly disconnect my life with the Lord. "He that believes in me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water." If I question on the outflow of my life, I lose the touch of the Lord.

Which are the people who have influenced us most? Not the ones who thought they did, but those who had never imagined that they were influencing us. In the Christian life the hidden quality is never conscious, if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.

Genuine fruits came about unconsciously; the natural process of fruit bearing is hidden. You may have waited for your tree to bear fruits for years but see no result. Suddenly one day you see new fruits grow out from the tip of a branch so unexpectedly. You have no clue where it came from. This fruit just grows out from within the tree. In the same token, the Fruit of the Spirit grows out from a person who yields his or her life to Christ totally. Paul said, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). You may have your desire to bear certain type of Spiritual Fruit in life. It is the Holy Spirit that finally determines the kind of fruit He wants you to bear for His glory. We can’t decorate ourselves with godly beauty. Godly beauty is an outflow of a genuine godly life in Christ. You will not even aware of this quality in you until someone is blessed by this spiritual fruit they see in you. Therefore, we don’t focus on bearing fruit but abiding in Christ or obey the Word of God at all time. Have a blessed weekend to walk with the Lover of your soul.

Love you through Christ,
Lawrence

Devotional 200809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Our God is good and He is always good to me. After a long day of ministry (from 8 am to 10 pm), I regained my strength by spending some times to rest in His presence. Indeed his Word is our strength and our joy. He always whispers with His gentle voice in our heart that we are His beloved children. We don’t need to try too hard to listen. We just need to be still with focus on our Lord and His Cross; you will hear His affirming words that come like a warm embrace.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is disturbing your inner peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say – “Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me,” and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will dignify you until the completeness is absolute.

The complete life is the life of a child. When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong. It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is the will of God. When there has been the slightest deviation from the will of God, we begin to ask - What is Thy will? A child of God never prays to be conscious that God answers prayer, he is so restfully certain that God always does answer prayer.

If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously. Jesus says, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest," i.e., Christ-consciousness will take over the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the perfect rest that self-conscious activity will not attain.

Yesterday, we visited our distinguished Chaplin, Rev. Mark Cheng, one of the founders of Gospel Operation International, and the champion of mission mobilization among Chinese Church. He was over 90 years old and was diagnosed with last stage of lung cancer lately. With a big smile and serenity on his face, he welcomed us to his house and said, “Wow, I have 3 men of God come to pray for me. God has to listen!” He was humorous and alert. With calm confident he said, “If God wants to heal me he just need to give order and it will be done.” This kind of ‘rest’ is what Brother Chambers talked about. It is not whether we deserve healing or not. It is perfect confidence and surrender to the will of God. There are no more struggles with self-consciousness or self-centeredness. He rested in the arms of God and enjoyed His sovereignty in his life. It is similar to how I feel right now in serving as a ‘second’ man instead of a ‘boss.’ I rested to know that my boss will be ultimately responsible for the well being of this mission. Yes, I still need to do my part faithfully. But if there is anything happen that requires a final decision, I am glad my boss will resolve it for me. We all have the BIG boss in heaven. We can have perfect peace to know that He is always in charge. On a contrary, if we try to take over his place or rebel against His role, we will not have peace at all. May God give you the peace that surpasses all understanding in the days to come!

Love you in peace,
Lawrence

Devotional 190809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is wonderful to be back to my ‘routine’ again. I missed my quiet time before the Lord and enjoy His presence. It felt like starving from food for so long that your stomach was craving for some solid food for your body. We have no strength to serve unless we have physical well being to do so. In the same token, we have no spiritual strength if our spiritual well being is at stake. Indeed, we need His strength more than we need food to live and to serve.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of the life in God, and self-consciousness continually produces wrestling.

Self-consciousness is not sin; it may be produced by a nervous temperament or by a sudden dumping down into new circumstances. It is never God's will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs rest in Him must be healed at once, and it is not healed by being ignored, but by coming to Jesus Christ. If we come to Him and ask Him to produce Christ-consciousness, He will always do it until we learn to abide in Him.

Never allow the dividing up of your life in Christ to remain without facing it. Beware of leakage, of the dividing up of your life by the influence of friends or of circumstances; beware of anything that is going to split up your oneness with Him and make you see yourself separately. Nothing is so important as to keep right spiritually. The great solution is the simple one - "Come to Me." The depth of our reality, intellectually, morally and spiritually, is tested by these words. In every degree in which we are not real, we will dispute rather than come.

Self-consciousness is an expression of self-centeredness. Just as Paul said, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5), self consciousness is to have our mind set on what our nature desires. And once we constantly yield to our nature’s desires, we are being controlled or dictated by our own desire instead of God’s desires. On a contrary, if we live according to the Holy Spirit, we will set our mind on God’s desires. We will become Christ-conscious. It is not a easy transition to change from self-conscious to Christ-conscious. Our mind is conditioned to think according to our own flesh but not according to the Holy Spirit. It really takes deliberate effort to set our mind in Christ at all time. But this is exactly where the battle field is in terms of our spiritual warfare. Satan would do whatever to take full control of our mind and disrupt our Christ-consciousness. We will not automatically “react” with the mind of Christ. Instead, we automatically react with the mind or attitude of our flesh. As a result, we cause split in church and divide our union in Christ. That’s why Paul admonished the Philippians, “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being, like-minded (Christ-consciousness), having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Phil 2:1). Let’s set this as our life goal to grow in Christ.

Love in accordance to His mind,
Lawrence

Devotional 180809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good evening. I just finished my 4 days annual staff meeting. We had a fruitful meeting even though it was tiring. Praise God for His guiding hands in leading this mission organization to fulfill His salvation plan on earth.

"When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth" (Luke 18:23). The rich young ruler went away expressionless with sorrow; he had not a word to say. He had no doubt as to what Jesus said, no debate as to what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow that was beyond word to describe. Have you ever been there? Has God's word come to you about something you are very rich in - temperament, personal similarity, relationships of heart and mind? Then you have often been expressionless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, He will not plead, but every time He meets you on that point He will simply repeat - If you mean what you say, those are the conditions.

"Sell all that you have," undress yourself morally before God of everything that might be a possession until you are a mere conscious human being, and then give God that. That is where the battle is fought - in the domain of the will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His hard sayings that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is hard to your ears; it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His mind. Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus Christ's.

I can be so rich in poverty, so rich in the consciousness that I am nobody, that I shall never be a disciple of Jesus; and I can be so rich in the consciousness that I am somebody that I shall never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute of the sense that I am destitute? This is where discouragement comes in. Discouragement is to disappoint self-love, and self-love may be love of “my devotion” to Jesus but not Jesus Himself.

The last paragraph is realty difficult to comprehend. I believe what Brother Chamber wanted to say was to let go of even our “consciousness of giving up all things” for Christ. Some people enjoy making sacrifice for others; it is a virtue of greatness to some who choose to live in poverty as a sign of sainthood. If we are not careful, we will easily fall into this trap of self-love. We sell or give up everything to follow Christ is not to show off our greatness but for our gratitude toward Christ and what He did on the cross for us. May God help us put to death even “our desire or mindset to be more holy and devoted than other.” We simply do what Christ wants us to do.

Love you because of His love,
Lawrence

Devotional 170809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It was an excited and busy weekend with relatives visiting us and preaching in two worship services at Oakland Chinese Independent Baptist Church. Our annual staff conference will continue until Wednesday. Therefore, I will not have time to write my personal reflection in my blog in these two days. Hope you will continue to read the devotional by Oswald Chamber and spend time to listen to His Word for you.

"You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Luke 18:22). "And when he heard this . . ." Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word? If you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear; when we do hear, His words are amazingly hard.

Jesus did not seem in the least concerned that this man should do what He told him, He made no attempt to keep him with Him. He simply said - Sell all you have, and come, follow Me. Our Lord never pleaded, He never persuaded, He never deceived; He simply spoke the sternest words mortal ears ever listened to, and then left it alone.

Have I ever heard Jesus say a hard word? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened? Not something I can explain or say this and that about, but something I have heard Him say to me? This man did understand what Jesus said, he heard it and he sized up what it meant, and it broke his heart. He did not go away disobedient; he went away sorrowful, thoroughly discouraged. He had come to Jesus full of the fire of earnest desire, and the word of Jesus simply froze him; instead of producing an enthusiastic devotion, it produced a heart-breaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, He let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible thing is that some of us prevent it bearing fruit in actual life. I wonder what we will say when we do make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain, He will never cast anything up at us.

Love you in Him,
Lawrence

Preaching at CIBC Oakland

It was always a pleasure to preach at Chinese Independent Baptist Church of Oakland, and rekindled the friendship with some brothers and sisters in that congregation. We especially delighted to meet our retired missionary, Esther, who is still active in sharing the gospel with people in Oakland. Many came forward to show interest to support the bivocational mission work. Praise the Lord!