As my in-laws are planning to visit us this summer, my wife has this “great” idea wanting me to “remodel” our three gardens outside. As a result, I spent most of my after work hours last week to clean and remodel the gardens. It has been 2+ years since we paid attention to our gardens. The gardens are all out of shapes, filled with weeds and unwanted stuffs. I have to clean them, replace the old enclosure with new wood, and add more dirt, soil and mulches. It is a laborious week and as of today, still progressing.

In the process of remodeling the gardens, we decided to scale the largest garden down to a smaller one for easy access and lawn maintenance. This means I have to remove all the surplus soil to other gardens – I need to dig the dirt out, mix with peat moss and then dump it to other gardens. With my aching back, it seems to take me forever to do those trips. This lets me think of an ancient fable called “The old fool moves the mountains 愚公移山” ha..ha..ha. Of course, this is just a sarcastic view of the fable. The truth is the old fool (愚公) is a man of persistence and love. He determined to improve the traffic convenience of his neighbors by convincing his family members and descendants to work with him – removing the two obstructing mountains in their daily path. Oftentimes, we praise those who have the determination to complete a difficult task – we admire their strong will and perseverance. Therefore, the old saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way 有志者事竟成”, is quoted frequently to describe the effort.

There is a “somewhat” similar story described in the book of Genesis chapter 6. There was a man called Noah who was a righteous man and found favor in the eyes of the LORD. He was instructed to build an ark, in his generation, in order to save mankind from the flood. In Noah’s case, he had to be very persevering in following God’s instruction and putting up sarcastic ridicules from others, during his laborious construction of the ark. Can you imagine the scene of a person who was in the wilderness, with his sons, trying to build a strange shape of boat for 70+ years? If it were I, I probably already gave up 🙁

It is his faith and reverence to God that Noah can sustain all the hardships and complete his assignment. The author of the book of Hebrews commented, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. 挪亞因著信、既蒙　神指示他未見的事、動了敬畏的心、豫備了一隻方舟、使他全家得救．因此就定了那世代的罪、自己也承受了那從信而來的義。(Hebrews 11:7)” There are lessons we can learn from Noah’s experience. The question is do we have the same faith and reverence to God as Noah? For example, how long have we prayed consistently to God for our unsaved family members?

My dear brothers and sisters, I have a “great idea” 🙂  Let me change the old saying this way, if I may, “Where there is a will to follow God, there is a way to be blessed有志跟隨主，事事必得福”  May God bless you, as always….

The tragic event of Boston Marathon bombing on last Monday (4/15) reopens the wounds that many people have experienced since 9/11/2001. Among the 100+ seriously injured victims, three of them lost their lives – they are all young and promising lives. One of them is a graduate student of math and statistics from Boston University, and she came from China. Sadly, when considering her statistical skill, she probably would never guess that this rare and terrible accident would fall upon her.

To mourn her, her friends got together holding a candlelight vigil on the street of her hometown Shenyang. They lamented, “Your hometown Shenyang is kindling bright candles for you to help you shine the path to heaven. You will never lost again as you were used to be. On your way, there will be NO MORE BOMBS and there will be NO MORE TERRORS’ ATTACK你的故鄉瀋陽為你點燃長明的蠟燭，幫你照亮天堂的道路，愛迷路的你不會再迷路，這一路上不再有炸彈，不再有恐怖襲擊.” What a heart-breaking and touching eulogy!

I am certain that her death would bring awful turmoil to the life of her parents, family members and friends – there will be many tears and heartbreaks. From reading newspaper and media on the internet, I discover that, like many of us, she left her hometown crossed oceans and culture barrier to pursue her dreams. During her stay in campus, she showed interest to Christianity and joined fellowship gatherings, according to her friend. Yet, I couldn’t tell whether she had received the greatest gift – salvation – or not. However, the eulogy her friends lamented hints us that “heaven” is the place that can give her protection – it will be no more bombs and terrors.

In fact, apostle John indicated to us that in the new heaven and new earth “He (God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 神要擦去他們一切的眼淚‧不再有死亡，也不再有悲哀，哭號，疼痛，因為以前的事都過去了‧(Revelation 21:4)” This is a promise we received from God when we accept His son Jesus Christ as our personal savior. How comfort it is!

We may not fathom the reason why she, the victimized student, had to depart from this world so abruptly by such a tragic accident. However, troubles and sufferings are not foreign to us, as our Lord Jesus indicated to His disciples. He wants His disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 你們心裡不要憂愁‧你們信神，也當信我 (John 14:1)”. When we learn to trust our Lord completely, we can then learn to “take heart” because He has overcome this world (John 16:33).  

My friends, are your hearts troubled? Please remember that “there are no more bombs in heaven” and, our Lord’s promises will never in vain. May you have the opportunity to meet Him personally!

In a theological seminary, a professor was giving a final exam to his students in a class. He stated that the test is in two parts. The first part has 10 questions, which attributes to 50% of its grade and the 2^nd part is another 50% with only one question. Most students breezed through the first part of the questions and they were eager to work on the second part. The question in the second part is “Can you name the cleaning lady you ran into everyday, in the hallway?”  Most of the students were stunned and did not know how to answer the question.

After the test, the students complained, “Professor, since we are in a theology class, why the name of a cleaning lady is important to our grade?” “Since you are all going to be in a ministry of touching people’s soul; don’t you think people’s name is important? Besides, how Jesus care about those who are weak and alienated should set a good example for you, isn’t it?” the professor responded.

This is a story that I heard from a radio broadcast recently. It makes me wonder: Am I like those seminary students – focus on personal gain than care about other people? The other day, my wife told me “so and so” is having a family problem, “so and so” is not feeling well, so she needs to call them to find out. I said, “I don’t remember them”. “You only focus on your work, no wonder you don’t remember”, my wife responded. I was speechless. I know I could make excuses and fault it to be my age problem, but I couldn’t do that every time.

A person’s name usually represents a special meaning to him or her. When Moses met God on the mountain Horeb, God called him, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Moses was ready to listen to God’s instruction. God then instructed him, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10). We can see that God’s calling to Moses is very personal and direct. He knows Moses name and He knows him inside out – even when Moses was not sure in following His instruction and saying, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God was patient and clear. He answered Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:14)”  

Apart from ‘I am’, there are more than 200 names and titles in the Bible used to represent God. For example,

The LORD is Peace, (Jehovah-Shalom, Yahweh-Shalom)

The LORD is There (Jehovah-Shammah, Yahweh-Shammah)

The LORD of Hosts (Jehovah-Sabaoth, Yahweh-Sabaoth)

The LORD Our Banner (Yahweh-nissi, Yahweh-nissi)

The LORD Our Righteousness (Jehovah-Tsidkenu, Yahweh-Tsidkenu)

The LORD who sanctifies you (Jehovah-M’Kaddesh, Yahweh-M’Kaddesh)

The LORD who provides (Jehovah-jireh, Yahweh-yir’eh)

My dear brothers and sisters, God’s name is what we need to remember in our heart all the times. His name is beautiful than any other name. Next time when you meet someone, please don’t forget to ask his / her name and introduce God’s beautiful name to him / her. May God bless your effort.

Last week, after my work, I decided to tackle the problem of clunking sound, which has bothered me for quite some time, in the front of my car.  The cause I discovered inadvertently in one of my routine car maintenance is a malfunction stabilizer link (or sway bar). It was caused by a negligence from a repair garage – There is one nut missing after the repair and the whole link is dangling around the air; as a result, the link was not functioning properly in supporting the vehicle.  The mechanism of the link is quite simple – a straight steel link with a set of nut and bolt on each end. I thought it was an easy task 🙂 All I need to do is taking out the two nuts from both ends of the old link and put the new one in then I am done. So, I jacked up my car, took off the tire and started to work on it.

I ended up spent hours substantially longer than I can imagine in taking out one of the rusty nuts. All I can say is it is brutal. After several failed attempts, I finally decided to use my reciprocating saw to saw the nut off. The good thing is the installation of the new link was a breeze. I then told myself, “Thing is not always as easy as it is seen”. Sigh! 🙁

When I was introduced to the Christianity by my friends, they told me that all you need to do is “to believe”. I responded, “To believe what?” Then they said, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 你若口裡認耶穌為主，心裡信神叫他從死裡復活，就必得救‧ (Romans 10:9)” My response to them is “How can it be so easy?”  They said, “Because the Bible told us so!”  The simple and easy path to the grace that God has provided makes most people wonder: it is just too good to be true. However, most of them didn’t realize that on the surface, it may be simple and easy; in reality, there is a hefty price being paid for our sins by Jesus, the Son of God, actually. No wonder someone used to say that, “Salvation is free but not cheap!”

After became a Christian, the journey of faith requires us to relinquish our rights to the Lord Jesus. Let me ask you this, “How many times our old self is like the “rusty” nut that I had just experienced won’t budge a bit?” It is probably every time when we confront it, right? This could be the reason why apostle Paul said, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 我也知道，在我裡頭，就是我肉體之中，沒有良善‧因為立志為善由得我，只是行出來由不得我‧(Romans 7:18)” The only drastic measure to overcome it, as Paul indicated, is the power of the Holy Spirit not our flesh strength.

My dear brothers and sisters, do you have “rusty nuts” in your personal journey of faith? I am sure we all have some of them. The question is “Do we know how to deal with them?” The apostle John taught us that firstly we have to be honest to God to acknowledge that we do have problems. He said, “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. (1 John 1:6)” Then, John indicated that God’s promise would forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness, if we confess our sins. So, do you have rusted nuts? Don’t sweat! We can’t overcome them but Him – confess to Him and ask His help to overcome them.