Month: October 2013

“Christian Value System” ———– Journal of reflection 10/27/2013

Foliage_2013Last week was a busy week for me. I was pressurized to finish my job assignments in order to meet a deadline. So, I was grouchy sometimes to my family. The good thing is I’ve got a chance to attend my colleague’s retirement gathering in one night. It was a small gathering and several of us enjoyed dinner together. We talked about a lot of subjects, ranging from families, new house purchasing, sports, current politics and new insurance system, etc.

My retired colleague told us their recent experience in purchasing a foreclosure house, which they planned to use as their retirement home. He mentioned that the house was badly damaged but is situated in a good location. Their plan was to tear it down and then build a small new house on it. With a considerable confidence after did his homework, my colleague went to bid the house. In the end, he was surprised and lost the bid. Apparently the highest bidder, who had paid a substantially higher than original sticker price, was more eager to get the house than him. This lets me think of our recent small group topical studies in “Christian Values”.

In essence, a “value” has two aspects of it. One is “price” and the other is “worth”.  In our daily life, we make a lot of decisions based on our own value system. For example, when we don’t think the thing is worthy of its price, we wouldn’t want to buy it. On the other hand, when the price is right, we may over-purchase something that we don’t need. I myself sometimes would fall into the price is right trap and as a result, my wife would complain that our garage is stuffed with rarely used tools 🙂

Consequently, a personal value system can be very subjective and it involves personal preferences. The question is “How can we make a correct call?”  This is where “Christian Value” system comes into play. When our decision making process invokes Christian Value system, we will see thing differently – from God’s view. The Christian Value system would put something on an “eternal” scale like this: “Is the thing of my interest, measured in the eternal scale, worthy of my attention?”  If not, then I should pay “less” attention to it. Otherwise, we would again waste our time and energy in pursuing it. This is just a simple example of practicing Christian Value system. The fundamental principle of the system, however, is as our Lord Jesus instructed: We need to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33a). When we follow this instruction, we would put our value system always in the “right eternal scale”.

My dear brothers and sisters, let me ask you a question here, “Do you use Christian Value system to make your decision everyday?”  Let me offer a prayer below:

“Lord, please open my eye to see what you see, to do what you want me to do. Make me a truthful follower to your will. Amen.”

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

“A forever relationship” ———– Journal of reflection 10/20/2013

swan_lakeYesterday was a beautiful day and several families of us went to a local lake to have a hiking. Walking along the hiking trails, we could observe the wonderful foliage and serene lake surface.  The trail is rather flat and easy to walk. It is interesting to see children were running ahead of us and led the way. But quickly they felt exhausted and said “they are hungry”. So, we gave them “power bars” to recharge them. “Isn’t this like us too?” I said to myself. Oftentimes we think we are strong and can do everything ourselves but in the end, we learn that only God can do everything. What we need is, like those children, coming before Him to be recharged everyday.

In the middle of our walking, we saw several beech trees.  Each of them has a sign “Do Not Cut, Scars keep forever”. Surprisingly, you can see there are many engravings beneath the sign, such as “Jessie loves Mary, John + Ariel,” etc. Apparently, they ignore the warning sign except the 2nd part of the sign “Scars keep forever” 🙂

If you think a little bit, you will find this is rather ironic. Because the act highlights two things: One is “to ignore the warning” and the other is “to desire a forever love”.  Isn’t this what our world is doing now – to ignore God’s warning but still longing for a forever relationship? The question is: Can you find a forever relationship in this world? Reading statistics from the news and media, you can find divorce rate is rising to an alarming range each year. The foundation of family is heavily damaged by both broken relationships between husband and wife and by the same time, homosexual marriage legalization. We learn that both fronts bring disaster to a family and the biggest causality is always its children — the scars left in the children’s mind keep forever. As a result, the society suffers from a bad cycle of broken relationship.

God has warned us throughout the Scriptures in the Bible. Do we heed His warnings? Not really! When we naively think that with our own strength and preference we can have a forever relationship with someone we love, we bound to run into difficulties, and obstacles and soon we give it up. The author of the book of Ecclesiastes told us that “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. 三股合成的繩子、不容易折斷。(Ecclesiastes 4:12b)” The important element of a strong family relationship, as the author indicated, is the third strand – God as the foundation of the family. When both husband and wife have a forever relationship with God, the family is under God’s protection and their mutual relationship will last forever.

My dear friends, are you looking for a forever relationship? Then please devote yourself to build a forever relationship with God. It is everlasting and fulfilling as long as you receive Him and believe in His name, because He will give you the right to become His child (John 1:12).  

 

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

“Unique culture” ———————- Journal of Reflection 10/13/2013

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

Yesterday, I had a chance to attend a conference with a brother. We attended some good workshops and had a good fellowship with brothers and sisters. One of the workshops we attended gave a very good analysis and insights of unique culture for an age group.  I didn’t realize its uniqueness until the speaker painstakingly illustrated from his observation and experience. One of his observations is the heavy influence from their family, the speaker said.  The age group has a heavy attachment to their parents and they have “little to none” trust to others, because of their parents’ traumatic experience from the past. The other observation from the speaker is the age group is the decision maker in the family in terms of daily living, purchasing, etc. because they are the generation of only child in the family.  The third observation is the utilitarianism. The age group was taught to focus on results, achievements and wealth.

The analysis opens my eye to see this age group of people would behave, though there will be exceptions as always but it won’t lose its generality. To know the unique culture of this age group could help me to interact with them better. Apostle Paul set a good example, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people向軟弱的人,我就作軟弱的人,為要得軟弱的人向什麼樣的人,我就作什麼樣的人 (1 Corinthians 9:22a)”  The sole purpose, as Paul indicated, is for the sake of the gospel to save some and share its blessings .

Interesting thing is we Christians also have a unique culture too – we believe in Jesus Christ, we worship Him and we follow Him. We are “from this world” but are not “of this world” because we have been set apart by God. We focus on how to live a life that is holy and glorify our Lord. We are commissioned by our Lord to make disciple of all nations. These belief, focus and purpose make us a unique species and oftentimes disliked by people who have different views and beliefs. But as apostle Paul reminded us, we need to become all things to all people, to learn unique cultures from various age groups in order to interact with them and win them to the Lord.

The speaker of the conference also indicated that people of that age group are always trying to be “different but not weird 異而不怪”.  Apparently, they want others to acknowledge their uniqueness and “coolness” but are still longing for acceptance from others. It is a challenge and certainly would put a lot of pressure on them. If we look at Christianity, we would find the uniqueness of Christianity makes us Christians different – we become light and salt of this world and bring hope to others even modern pop culture prevails. This is our uniqueness that we should cherish. I pray that we all can be a vessel of God’s love to them.

May our Lord lead you to where He wants you to be!

“Royal Marriage” ———– Journal of Reflection 10/6/2013

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

One afternoon in the last week, my wife and I decided to have a lunch together at the local culinary school. We were celebrating our wedding anniversary, privately. While we were waiting in the line of ordering, my wife saw a familiar person walked by but couldn’t have a chance to confirm it. Then we found that her husband and her in-law were waiting behind us in the same line, what a joyful surprise!

It is great to have an afternoon bathed under sun and strolled along the school’s campus, especially with my wife’s accompanying. She said, “I couldn’t believe that we have been together for so many years already.” I nodded my head. Yes, time really flies and it is going so fast that it seems to be yesterday. We thank God for His protection on our marriage.

This lets me think of the Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s royal wedding which was hailed as the wedding of the century.  Certainly, it is a wedding with great splendor – it attracts 3500 honorable guests with millions of TV viewers in addition, not even mention how much time, wealth and resources had been spent.  Sadly to say, the marriage didn’t end well as we all know.  The familiar childhood dream of “love each other forever and happy thereafter”, which we all have a chance to read before, was not materialized. A question then came to my mind is “Can we find a true loving and ever-lasting marriage in this world?”  Good question! I am afraid that this is going to be a tremendous challenge as I see God’s definition of marriage, one man and one woman, has been severely confronted and altered around the world. I do hope there exists true loving and ever-lasting marriage, as is defined by God, as many as possible.

For those who believe in Jesus Christ, however, don’t have to just hope—they are assured of a royal marriage in heaven.  It is going to be splendorous and the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the Bridegroom. This is exactly what Apostle John indicated to us, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. 我們要歡喜快樂,將榮耀歸給他因為羔羊婚娶的時候到了,新婦也自己預備好了就蒙恩得穿光明潔白的細麻衣 (Revelation 19:7-8) This marriage is going to be a true loving and ever-lasting. The question is “Are you one of the believers?”

My dear friends, an “earthly” royal marriage will certainly let you gain the status of royalty. But it couldn’t assure you of a true loving and ever-lasting marriage. To gain both, the only way I know is to accept Jesus Christ’s invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb. It is a “heavenly” royal marriage, which is glorious and splendorous, and it will give you the status of royalty to be God’s children. Isn’t this worth us to seek for?