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Hot and humid days are oftentimes difficult to bear. Last week’s hot spell finally came to a relief in the weekend. By taking advantage of the cooler weather, I went to a local lake to relax a little bit – bass fishing. A little girl came to me in the middle of my casting. “Can you help me?” she pleaded. I turned around and looked at her, wondering why she came to a stranger like me, alone. Then I saw her hand was holding a fishing pole, a big blob of tangled fishing line with a float and a hook spawn over the fishing reel. I admire her courage in thinking that I wouldn’t reject her. I told her that it is not worth time to untangle the line now but I will help her to reattach the line to the float and the hook. Five minutes later, I cut off the tangled portion and used fresh line from the reel to reattach everything back.  She was happy to go back to her parents and fish again.

In the past two years, I started to pick up the hobby of fishing. I spent time in local creeks, ponds and lakes to enjoy my relaxing time, with my wife’s permission, of course. 🙂 As I recall, there are various situations could make my fishing trip disappointing or sometimes struggling – for example, bad weather, poor water condition, incorrect fishing gear, baits and lures, or, too many people at the same spot, fish is not in the mood of biting, etc. The most frustrating experience, however, is to untangle fishing line. I still remember in the early stage of my learning to fish, I could spend half of my time to straighten out tangled lines. Coupled with my novice experience and low cost fishing gear, the fishing reel and line just didn’t work together well at all – I couldn’t cast it far and they always tangle after my casting. I was struggling most times to find a lead in order to untangle the line.

When I think of the fishing experience that I had, I was wondering if there are lessons for me to learn. I would say, sometimes our life is similar to fishing. In our journey of life, we may set many goals or objectives, ambitiously. Then we cast our lines out hoping that our effort would be rewarded by achieving what we want. When environment and conditions were not in our favor, we ran into difficulties – tangled lines. At that time, we are struggling to untangle the lines – to overcome the difficulties. The question is what is our approach? Are we basing on our own wisdom and methods to solve the difficulties or do we rely on our Lord’s wisdom? The difference could be 40 years vs. a month – if we look at Israelites’ experience. Instead of travelling from Egypt to the land of Canaan in a month, they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. This is when they used their own understanding instead of following God’s instructions.

In recent daily Bible reading, we read the story of Naaman’s Leprosy healed by prophet Elisha (2 Kings chapter 5). Again, we saw how our understanding and wisdom are so limited in facing difficulties. The initial scoffing from Naaman against Elisha’s instruction of “go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean. (2 Kings 5:10)” is a good example. I was always wondering if Naaman rejected the idea of dipping in the Jordan river, what is the end result of him? I think he is going to suffer from the disease undoubtedly. Isn’t this the same situation we ran into frequently – we rely on our own understanding in solving situations and we struggled! This reminds me of my favorite verse from the book of Proverbs chapter 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding你要專心仰賴耶和華，不可倚靠自己的聰明” If in all our ways we submit to Him, He promised that He will make our paths straight (Proverbs 3:6).

For sure, there are always tangled line situations in this world, as Jesus indicated to us in the gospel John 16:33. We just have to remember that our Lord has overcome the world and there is no any trouble that our Lord couldn’t handle.

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A privilege is an advantage, right, or benefit that is not available to everyone – usually a relatively small group of people enjoys it. In my working company, we have “restricted parking spaces” for high-level managers. They enjoy the right to park their car on a reserved space that is close to the building and is always available to them. This privilege is to recognize their status in the company. There is another type of privilege called “handicap” parking spaces – these are for people who are unable to move as well as normal persons. This special privilege has been adopted as a law in every public place such as schools, malls, stores, etc.

Have you ever seen people who are not handicapped but parked at the handicap spaces?  I did and actually very frequent. The other day I stopped by a local Walmart store, while I was looking for a space to park, I saw a car quickly came from my behind and parked her car into a handicap space. Then, I saw a woman came out with kids walked directly into the store. To me she is certainly not a handicapped person. Later I did find out that she does have a handicap tag hung on her car. At that moment, I was confused and thinking about how to reconcile the definition of “handicap”.

Most of us may hear a common opening such as, “It is my privilege to be here, etc. etc……..”.  In our life journey, we may be given different privileges to do something or to make something. Don’t you think that is necessary for us to use the privilege rightfully?  I think so. For example, as a father, I have the “privilege” to bring up my kids and raise my family. You can argue and call this a “responsibility”. But when I said it is a “privilege”, it bears a different meaning because it is a “God given” privilege.

In our spiritual journey, what kind of privilege we have as God’s children? The Bible taught us that we could come before His throne of grace confidently that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). And, we can have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19). In addition, we could talk to Him directly, anytime and anywhere because His Spirit is dwelling in us and the Spirit would intercede for us. Finally, we have the privilege to reign with Him in His second coming.

When a privilege is abused, there are certain consequences could follow it. In the example of handicap parking, I was not happy to see people abused the privilege. The emotion prompts me to despise such an act because it would strip other true handicaps’ need at that time. Similarly, as Christians, we should be faithful in using our privileges. When we couldn’t live a godly life, we let other people lose confidence to God. Moreover, we would have difficulties to enter the Most Holy Place and talk to our heavenly Father with confidence. Isn’t this a significant matter?

During our last Friday’s group meeting, we studied the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. The author reminded his fellow Jews, “How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 何 況 人 踐 踏 神 的 兒 子 ， 將 那 使 他 成 聖 之 約 的 血 當 作 平 常 ， 又 褻 慢 施 恩 的 聖 靈 ， 你 們 想 ， 他 要 受 的 刑 罰 該 怎 樣 加 重 呢 ！(Hebrews 10:29)” I was reminded unequivocally too.

My dear brothers and sisters, we were granted a privilege to enter God’s family and to come before Him confidently. May our Lord help us to treat this privilege seriously and enjoy the privilege while we can.

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Change is usually not welcomed by most people. People resist the kind of change that, they think, would make his/her situation worse than better. Most people have no problem in changing job when it means higher pay; or to move to a bigger house in a better neighborhood. If change is required because of job loss, health problem, family problem, etc. Then, it creates ill feeling and resistance. Someone used to say, “No one likes to change, unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Recent announcement in my working place, which provides an opportunity of early retirement to employees, was an interesting topic for many of us. From the hallway talks that I have heard, there were not many people like to take the option. Besides doubts and confusions with the announcement, I believe there were resistances to change too – knowing that there is going to be a drastic change in life style. One of my colleagues even told me that he is afraid of retirement because he does not know what to do after and he may not have enough medical benefit to cover himself. This reminds me to ask myself, “Do I have a similar problem too?” I think I have no problem because I know it is going to be better – I can have more time to serve the Lord and enjoy my life, if Lord is willing.

When we first met our Lord and accepted Him as our Savior, the Holy Spirit transformed us into a new creation – the old has gone and the new is here (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is a change came from God, like prophet Ezekiel said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 我也要賜給你們一個新心、將新靈放在你們裡面．又從你們的肉體中除掉石心、賜給你們肉心。(Ezekiel 36:26)”.  We received the new heart and new spirit to our old flesh and He urges us to change our old behaviors. Because of our sinful nature, resistance to change continues to surface – we struggle to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We tend to go back to our old habit and old life style. However, the Scriptures reminded us that the change is necessary because it is the will of God.

Therefore, as Christians, change is necessary if we want to grow into a full measure of Christ. Our old self is never meant to inherit the kingdom of God, as Apostle Paul said, “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 弟兄們、我告訴你們說、血肉之體、不能承受　神的國．必朽壞的、不能承受不朽壞的。(1 Corinthians 15:50)”.  As a result, the change we are undergoing now shall enable us to inherit His kingdom.

No doubt about that we will continue to experience difficult situations or face all kinds of challenges during the process of change. We just have to remember that we have our Lord the great shepherd. He will lead us through peaks and valleys of our journey of life because He promised that He will be with us and will never forsake us.

My dear brothers and sisters, we may resist changing our old life style and habits. But, please remember that it is God’s will that we were predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Let’s be reminded that the change of giving up our flesh desires that are hindering us from following the Lord is necessary. May our Lord bless you and keep you as always.

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Standing in front of a vending machine, I was looking for a snack to jump-start my body, as it was a long day at work.  I understand it is not good to my body but I feel that I need something to pump up quickly. I told myself, “It is just a snack bar, nothing biggie.”  A few days later, I ended up doing the same thing again.  Later on, there always a voice, “See, there are so many good stuffs here” in my head, when I walk pass the vending machine. Every time, I have to tell myself, “Don’t look at it, don’t look at it”.

A snack bar may not be a biggie but it is not nutritious to my body either. As it is not a “normal meal” and it couldn’t provide full nutrition but high sugar. I find that sometimes it is very difficult to resist my flesh desires even I know it is not good for myself. There is an old saying, “It is easy to say than done 說比做更容易 ”. This is exactly the situation that we all have experienced. Apostle Paul, in the book of Romans chapter 7, enlightened us that our sinful nature is the most difficult one to overcome. This reminds me of a story that I read before. The story goes something like this,

A brother talked to another brother who is a church leader. He said, “In all our meetings, you have to watch out one person carefully. You have to watch him like a hawk — discipline him and restrain him constantly without leaving room to him.”

“Who is that?” The church leader said it curiously.

“He is your “old self””, the brother responded.

I think you probably would agree with me that it is difficult to restrain and discipline our “old self”.  That is the reason Apostle Paul indicated to us that the only path to live a triumphant life for our Lord is to “put our old self to death” (Colossians 3:5). This will be a life long journey for us, I believe.

A snack bar may not be a problem but it could be a sign of give in. We are all very familiar with that we may not be able to prevent birds from flying over our head but we can prevent them from building a nest on our head. If we let slipping and drifting occur to our faith journey, sooner or later, we would see a big backslide. Andrew Murray, a missionary to South Africa and a Christian pastor, once said, “Many Christians backslide…They are unable to stand against the temptations of the world, or of their old nature. They strive to do their best to fight against sin, and to serve God, but they have no strength. They have never really grasped the secret: The Lord Jesus will every day from heaven continue His work in me. But on one condition—the soul must give Him time each day to impart His love and his grace. Time alone with the Lord Jesus each day is the indispensable condition of growth and power.”

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, we have to watch out and encourage one another and speak truth in love. Most importantly, make an appointment with our Lord daily in order to be nurtured by His words. Then, His Spirit will guard us and guide us.