Month: November 2011

“Wish List” Journal of Reflection 11/27/2011

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

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Each year, Thanksgiving Day is always a great time for my family to get together with friends and families to reflect on the blessings we received from God. During this year, we are so grateful that we can have another chance to serve Him joyfully in various capacities.

The Thanksgiving Day is also a marking of the start of Christmas shopping season, especially the day after Thanksgiving which is normally called “Black Friday”. There are a lot of door buster sales for you to pick and choose. Hope you got what you are looking for from your “wish list”.  Sometimes, I was wondering “Do I really need those extra stuffs lying around my house?” It seems to me discontentment is more of a cause for the shopping spree than is a necessity.

There has an old saying, “Looking for a horse while riding on a donkey (騎驢找馬)”. It is usually implying in searching for a better one while retaining the current one. However, it is also implicating an unsettled mind set against currently possessed resource or position. It may not be wrong if you could find a right balance in between your “aspiration” and “contentment”. But I find it is a difficult thing to control the “little fox” in our mind – The more we desire, the more we were aspired to get. “When to stop” is the most difficult thing to practice. No wonder the Bible teaches us to pursue the “self control” fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

So, what is your wish list during this season, my dear brothers and sisters? Do you wish to become a thankful person?  How about wishing to develop a better and closer relationship with our God?  After all, we received all the blessings from Him. May we all remember that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights (James 1:17a).

Hence, to be thankful is to acknowledge His provision and mercies. The author of the book of Proverbs taught us that, “in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. 在你一切所行的事上,都要認定他,他必指引你的路‧ (Proverbs 3:6)”

May God bless you and your family during this holiday seasons.

“Wrong Card” Journal of Reflection 11/20/2011

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

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Last Sunday, I was asked by my wife to buy bottles of milk from supermarket. So, I stopped by a local ShopRite supermarket to get two of them. Nowadays, supermarket is providing self checkout lanes just like gas stations aimed to reduce labor expense. At one of the self checkout lanes, I swiped my supermarket card to let the scanning machine recognize me first before I scan my milk. Immediately, the machine threw me an error message and asked me to find a salesperson for help. I thought it was either the machine does not like me :-), or my swiping was not done properly. Consequently, I reset the machine and restarted the process again. This time I carefully swiped my supermarket card and guess what, the same error message came up again. My mind told me that “Hey, dummy, just follow the advice!” Hence, I strolled to a counter and asked a salesperson to help me clear the message.

After the salesperson came and cleared the message, I re-swipe my card…… the same annoying message showed up again! I was about to blow up my patience; I looked at the salesperson and asked, “Why my card is not recognized?” The salesperson looked at me “sternly” and said, “This is ShopRite, not Stop & Shop!” I suddenly realized that I was using a “wrong” (Stop & Shop) supermarket card. Boy! I was embarrassed. 🙁 On my way out, I blamed my old age again for this embarrassing experience. As I think it over, I find the experience is interesting and it gives me a perspective that might be interested to you also.

Sometimes, we may “quickly” judge something or someone without looking into ourselves first. This usually could generate embarrassing / awkward situations. You can call it a human weakness – finger pointing outward is easier than pointing inward, even we know that “three fingers inward” and “two fingers outward” are normal pointing style. The book of James teaches us that:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 我親愛的弟兄們,這是你們所知道的‧但你們各人要快快的聽,慢慢的說,慢慢的動怒‧因為人的怒氣,並不成就 神的義‧(James 2:19-20)

Then, the machine was doing its job in filtering out wrong input from me. There is no back-off or compromise likes human usually would. Of course, you can argue that it is machine and is inhuman 🙂 As Christians, it is very important for us to function properly like the machine did – to discern good from evil messages from this world. It requires us to read God’s words diligently in order to become a mature person eating solid food, just like the author from the book of Hebrews said,

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 凡 只 能 吃 奶 的 都 不 熟 練 仁 義 的 道 理 , 因 為 他 是 嬰 孩 ;惟 獨 長 大 成 人 的 才 能 吃 乾 糧 ; 他 們 的 心 竅 習 練 得 通 達 , 就 能 分 辨 好 歹 了 。(Hebrews 5:13-14)

Lastly, using the right card is crucial to be recognized by the machine. It is similar to realize that the right “Way” is crucial to our salvation as Jesus said,

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 耶穌說,我就是道路,真理,生命‧若不藉著我‧沒有人能到父那裡去‧ (John 14:6)

My dear brothers and sisters, we used to be like the main character, “Graceless”, in the “The Pilgrim’s Progress天路歷程” by John Bunyan. Because of God’s grace, we become “Christian”.  Let’s remember His grace and count His blessings. There is no greater gift than His son, Jesus Christ.

“Kimchi Fried Rice” Journal of Reflection 11/13/2011

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

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Recently, my wife started to favor the Kimchi fried rice. So, she experimented several times at home and of course, my kids and I have no choice but become guinea pigs. 🙂 To be honest, it is not too bad and my kids love it. My wife usually likes to venture new things and new / wild ideas, some of you may have already known it. To me, I used to think the fried rice is kind of “cold rice reutilization” – no wonder some people called it “cooking cold rice (炒冷飯)” because it is usually done on “left over” rice and seldom people would do it on the newly cooked rice. Besides, cooking cold rice would sometimes imply “there is nothing new” analogously.

This lets me think of a conversation at my working place:

“So, what’s your point?” one of my colleagues asked. “My point is we don’t need to re-invent the wheel, we can build upon what we have.” My other colleague answered.

This is a scene in one of our meetings at work. Normally, to reinvent the wheel is meant to duplicate a basic method that has already been created or proven by others previously. Cooking cold rice would be similar to reinventing the wheel if we look at from “there is nothing new” perspective. But it could mean differently if we look from “the wheel” perspective. Fried rice needs to have “rice” as a base and the other ingredients are just add-on. Similarly, the wheel is the originally proven method and it is the base for other things to build upon.

Now let me point you to another perspective, if I may – what is the “rice” or “wheel” in our belief? Based on Apostle Paul’s teaching to the church of Corinth,

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 因為那已經立好的根基,就是耶穌基督,此外沒有人能立別的根基‧(1 Corinthians 3:11)

Therefore, it is clear to us the foundation of our belief is “Jesus Christ”.  Then, the next question would be “what kind of “fried rice” you are cooking?” Because it is ultimately important as Paul indicated:

If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 若有人用金,銀,寶石,草木,禾楷,在這根基上建造‧各人的工程必然顯露‧因為那日子要將他表明出來,有火發現‧這火要試驗各人的工程怎樣‧人在那根基上所建造的工程,若存得住,他就要得賞賜‧(1 Corinthians 3:12-14)

Last Friday, we were studying the 2 Timothy 4, Paul confidently declared that:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 那美好的仗我已經打過了‧當跑的路我已經跑盡了‧所信的道我已經守住了‧從此以後,有公義的冠冕為我存留,就是按著公義審判的主到了那日要賜給我的‧不但賜給我,也賜給凡愛慕他顯現的人‧(2 Timothy 4:7-8)

Do we have the same confidence that he had? Can we become a tasty Kimchi Fried Rice in the future? This is a question worth to ask ourselves, my dear brothers and sisters….

 

 

“Hearty Soup” Journal of Reflection 11/6/2011

Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.

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“Mommy, can you cook your hearty chicken soup with mushrooms and spice, again?” my younger son asked my wife one day. My wife was delighted to accept the request because she knew this kind of soup is my whole family’s favorite.

Making a good soup needs a good recipe of ingredients and long cooking time. With today’s busy schedule, cook a soup sometimes could be a challenge; especially the one which is well liked by the whole family. I don’t know whether you like to “drink or eat” soup or not, I myself am a soup lover. Back to my younger days, my mom used to cook “clear” type of soups for us during our daily lunch and dinner time. When I came to the States, it is a different story – the American “thick” style of soup is hardly my favorite initially, it is no where near the soup that I recognized back to old days. Years later, I finally could accept the “American” soup even though I still like Chinese “clear” style better.

Someone used to say that religious concepts are like soups, some are “thick” and some are “clear”. It is an interesting analogy and it bears some insights too. In Christianity, Bible is our utmost standard and recipe of life. It is like a hearty soup – could be both “clear” and “thick” type – that we can taste. Apostle Paul indicated to us that:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

聖經都是神所默示的,﹝或作凡神默示的聖經﹞於教訓,督責,使人歸正,教導人學義,都是有益的‧叫屬神的人得以完全,預備行各樣的善事‧(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

From here, we know that Bible is God’s instructions to His children. It teaches His children to follow His commands and standard of living – holiness. Because Bible is a standard, it can therefore be used to rebuke / reproof our living – conviction. With the help from the Holy Spirit, when we receive rebuke / reproof, we know that we have deviated from God’s teachings. As a result, we would try to correct our direction. No wonder the psalmist would say, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)” We wouldn’t want to venture into dark path if we couldn’t see it clearly, right? The ultimate function of the Bible would lead us to righteousness – the highest standard of God, the “thick” style of soup.  Finally, we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Isn’t the Bible very useful? Sure it is…

Now we learned that Bible has some “thick” stuff – righteousness, so, what is “clear” stuff in the Bible? Remember the song “God is Love (耶和華是愛)” (1 John 4:16)?  “Love” is the “clear” stuff that we are looking for. From Old Testament to New Testament, we could learn how God loves us.  For example, King David wrote his psalm 103 to praise the LORD,

Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion 我的心哪,你要稱頌耶和華,不可忘記他的一切恩惠‧他赦免你的一切罪孽,醫治你的一切疾病‧他救贖你的命脫離死亡,以仁愛和慈悲為你的冠冕‧ (Psalm 103:2-4)

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 神差他獨生子到世間來、使我們藉著他得生、 神愛我們的心、在此就顯明了。(1 John 4:9)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.惟有基督在我們還作罪人的時候為我們死、 神的愛就在此向我們顯明了。(Romans 5:8)

We all like to be loved. Love is the most powerful thing that God gave to us and it is one of the difficult commands that we can hardly to follow. Love God wholeheartedly and love our neighbors as ourselves are the two commands God wants us to practice. It is like to make a “hearty” soup with our life time. Isn’t this difficult? Sure it is….

My dear brothers and sisters, Bible is like our spiritual “hearty” soup to our spiritual life. If we want to grow into the full measure of Christ, then we need to read our Bible diligently. It is a thought that I want to share with you this week. May God remove all the obstacles that hinder you from approaching Him!