Devotional 280809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I can’t believe it is Friday again. When life is so abundant and full, you just wished that the sun would come to a halt. It is like going a buffet dinner; you wished your stomach had more room and the delicious food would not make you fat. But this is not the reality. We have limitation. We only have 24 hours each day to enjoy our abundant life in Christ. Seize the moment to make life as meaningful and fruitful that God empower you to have. And one of them is to draw close to Him each day.

"Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

"Ask and ye shall receive." We complaint before God, we are apologetic or apathetic, but we ask very few things. Yet what a superb courage a childlike child has! Our Lord says - "Except you become as little children." Ask, and God will do. Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room, and no man will ever do this unless he is at the end of his intelligence. When a man is at the end of his intelligence it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality. Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know you have come to the end of your intelligence. As long as you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

It is not so true that "prayer changes things" as that prayer changes me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's character.

Indeed, prayer changes our character and nature. It causes us to realize that we are not the center of the universe. We are not God. We cannot be self-sufficient. We are not totally reliable simply because we are not omnipotent. As we pray, we admit to God that we are only a finite human being; we have limitation and we are not perfect. We go to God in such humility and seek His divine intervention in our finite world. As we pray, we rely on God’s provision and protection. We surrender our whole being to Him and give Him the freedom to do His cleansing work and creative healing. The more we pray with this kind of attitude, the more we are shaped to be more like Christ. We begin to perceive or judge things differently. Just as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 2:15-16, “The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.” When a person is having the mind of Christ, pre-Christian friends will not be able to understand his or her mindset, because it is so different from the norm. This is how prayer will accomplish in those who seek to know God through it. May God continue to work in your mind as you surrender to Him each day! Have a wonderful weekend to enjoy the presence of God.

Love you in His name,
Lawrence

Devotional 270809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Praise God for His miraculous provisions and thank you for your prayer, the financial condition of our organization has improved. Our no pay leave (NPL) policy will be terminated next month; earlier than we originally anticipated. So, today and next Monday will be my last two NPL days for August. And I was so happy to wake up to a bright sunny morning in Daly City. Without any hesitation, I went out to jog right away; something I have never done since I moved to Daly City more than ten years ago. And by the time I came back, the fog rolled back in again. I learned to seize the moment and do the right thing when opportunity is available.

"You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going" (John 12:35). Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. "If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The second you waive the question of sanctification or any other thing upon which God gave you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse.

The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the arrogant satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it is shown in the life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.

Theology must work itself out in the most practical relationships. "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees . . ." said Our Lord, i.e., you must be more moral than the most moral being you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you running it out into the practical issues of your life? Every bit of your life, physical, moral and spiritual is to be judged by the standard of the Atonement of Christ.

Only dead people stop growing. Some growth is desirable and some isn’t; we don’t want our body grow sideway like bearing a “spare tie” on our waist. We want our growth to be balanced and healthy. In the same way, our spiritual growth needs to be monitored on a regular basis. Or else Satan will take over our heart (control center of our reason, emotion and will) when we leave our heart on an auto mode (whatever!). King Solomon said in his proverbs, “Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it” (Pro 4:23). At work, we know we need to guard our heart; to be alert of what need to be done and what not to be done. Some of us give our best to our work and want to see our desirable results. However, when comes to our walk with God or our personal well being, our attitude is just “whatever.” Your carelessness will have undesirable consequences. I grow weeds (undesirable vegetation) in my backyard when I am careless about my gardening. What kind of spiritual garden you have in your heart today? Don’t give up when it becomes a jungle of weeds. Once you start working on it, you will be amazed how fast you can have a fresh new garden again, because our Holy Spirit will partner with you on the side. Call on Him today to start working on your spiritual garden. You will enjoy spending time in your garden when you begin to pay attention to its growth.

Love you in Christ,
Lawrence

Devotional 260809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It is a joy to rest in His presence with a cup of tea. Knowing God is always in control and we are His beloved children, we can relax and enjoy the life that He is preparing for us to live today. It may come with ups and downs experience, but it will never come short of God’s presence and His grace. Our Father in Heaven is always our faithful and almighty God. Praise His wonderful name!

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27). There are times when our peace is based upon ignorance, but when we awaken to the facts of life, inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When Our Lord speaks peace, He makes peace, His words are ever "spirit and life." Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? "Peace I leave with you" - it is a peace which comes from looking into His face and realizing His undisturbedness.

Are you painfully disturbed right now, distracted by the waves and billows of God's providential permission, and are you still finding no well of peace or joy or comfort; it seems to be all unproductive even though you hold on to the boulders of your belief? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord Jesus. Your peaceful reaction is the proof that you are right with God because you deliberately turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, you are either disturbed or you have a false security.

Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you. But if you try to worry it out, you shut Him out and deserve all the problems you get. We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him. When one talks with Jesus Christ the confusion goes, because He has no uncertainty, and our only concern is to abide in Him. Lay it all out before Him, and in the face of difficulty, bereavement and sorrow, hear Him say, "Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

We seldom take God’s word and His promise literally. We tend to look at them as some good wishes type of encouragement or teaching – it just makes you feel good. But in reality, God’s promises are true and reliable. We can count on His words if we turn our eyes to Jesus in the face of our troubles. We usually react to trouble by worry or fear instead of turning to Christ in prayer. We pray only when all possible solutions fail. And even when we pray, our mind still allow doubts and worries remain. Peace and joy enable our mind to work better; a panic person cannot think right. Therefore, it only makes sense to first turn to God in prayer and receive peace from His presence, in stead of reacting in panic or fear, when we encounter problems in life. Medical research already confirms the fact that joy will empower your immune system that can resist majority of known diseases, including cancer. But how often will we react with joy when we are ill with severe disease like cancer? God wants to give you this gift of peace and joy that can empower your body to do amazing things; it all up to you to receive them by faith or not. Let’s trust in His Word and His promises for all of us today.

Love you in accordance to His Word,
Lawrence

Devotional 250809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good afternoon. I didn’t expect our staff meeting took up the whole morning. And it is time for a farewell party for one of our coworkers, who left for health reason. Please pray that God will provide us her replacement: a graphic designer/IT support.

"I no longer call you servants, 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). We never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we abandon in every particular. Self-surrender is the most difficult thing - I will if…! Oh well, I suppose I must devote my life to God. There is none of the joy of self-sacrifice in that.

As soon as we do abandon, the Holy Spirit gives us an intimation of the joy of Jesus. The final aim of self-sacrifice is laying down our lives for our Friend. When the Holy Ghost comes in, the great desire is to lay down the life for Jesus, and the thought of sacrifice never touches us because sacrifice is the love passion of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord is our example in the life of self-sacrifice - "I delight to do Thy will, O my God." He went on with His sacrifice with exuberant joy. Have I ever yielded in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If Jesus Christ is not our target, there is no benefit in the sacrifice; but when the sacrifice is made with the eyes on Him, slowly and surely the molding influence begins to surface.

Beware of letting natural kinship hinder your walk in love. One of the cruelest ways of killing natural love is to disregard natural kinship. The kinship of the saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not sentimental, for the saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing.

"I have called you friends." It is a friendship based on the new life created in us which has no kinship with our old life, but only with the life of God. It is unspeakably humble, unblemished pure, and absolutely devoted to God.

We don’t even know how to become genuine friend with people let alone to be with God. Our idea of friendship becomes self serving. We want a friend to be our companion when we are lonely. We want a friend to be our helper when we have a project in mind. Our idea of friendship is becoming so self-centered. We may not care how other may feel or need. We only concern about how we feel and need. When we say we have no friend, we usually are complaining no body care about ME, or none pay attention to ME. Therefore, we choose friends that are influential, helpful, capable, smart, good looking and so on. We are like shopping for friends that we like for our own pleasure. But this is not the same way Jesus chose us as His friends. None of us will meet His standard if He were to choose us as His friend. He chooses us as His friend not because we are good and capable. It is purely His mercy and grace. I guess this is what we need to learn from our Lord in terms of building friendship in Christ.

Love you as a friend in Christ.
Lawrence

Devotional 240809

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. I thank God for a wonderful weekend to be with my family. We had some quality time to talk and share throughout the trip. I wished we had more time to spend with one another, especially with my son and two foster children. Today I am on call for my Jury Duty, and need to help my foster kid move back to Berkeley again. See if I will become the ‘chosen’ juror.

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?" (Matthew 7:9) The illustration of prayer that Our Lord uses here is that of a good child asking for a good thing. We talk about prayer as if God heard us regardless of the fact of our relationship to Him, like His general grace for all: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). Never say it is not God's will to give you what you ask, don't sit down and faint, but find out the reason, turn up the indicator. Are you rightly related to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to your fellow-students - are you a "good child" there? "0 Lord, I have been bad-tempered and cross the line, but I do want spiritual blessing." You cannot have it; you will have to do without until you come into the attitude of a good child.

We mistake disobedience for devotion; arguing with God for abandonment. We will not look at the indicator. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want when there is something I have not paid for? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? I have not forgiven someone his trespasses; I have not been kind to him; I have not been living as God's child among my relatives and friends. Make sure you don’t forget the golden rule, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (7:12).

I am a child of God only by regeneration, and as a child of God I am good only as I walk in the light. Prayer with most of us is turned into religious boredom; it is a matter of emotion, mystical communion with God. Spiritually we are all good at producing fogs. If we turn up the indicator, we will see very clearly what is wrong - that friendship, that debt, that temper of mind. It is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then, Jesus says - "Everyone that asks receives."

In prayer, God speaks and reminds us of what we need to shape up in life. We seldom pay attention to what God has to say through prayer, but focus only on what we want from Him; we don’t really ask for Him but ask for the things we desire apart from Him. Once we seriously focus on Him for a few seconds, His words will penetrate into our hearts and make us remember, reflect or repent. We can either ignore Him by moving on our lives without Him, or we pause and interact with Him in an intimate way. This is how we nurture our relationship with God or how we walk with Christ each day. Our heavenly Father is always watching over us and waiting to interact with us. He will not force His way in but wait for our invitation. Our way of inviting Christ into our live is by focusing on Him or worshipping Him. Have mercy on us O Lord. We too used to do our own things and make our own decisions without seeking you at all. Help us to be Christ-conscious. Remind us to invite you to take control of our lives from time to time, because this is the way we receive blessings from you. Amen.

Love you in Christ,
Lawrence

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